Second Stringers
by Tinkerbell Jepardy
Summary: Kritiker and Esstet are rebuilding for a final showdown. And they both have their eyes set on the same two people. If only they knew what that meant… (First in the Guilt, Sin, and Death arch)
1. It Begins

GUILT, SIN, and DEATH  
  
Part one: SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Prologue: It Begins  
  
He looked down at his arms. The lightly tanned skin was flawed in more then one place by the bright white of scars not yet faded. Needle marks, suicide attempts, and just random cuts that held no real purpose, but were there anyways. Most were faded down to a level that you couldn't see them unless you looked very close and knew where they were. Others had disappeared altogether. Not from his eyes though. Every scar still shown brightly as the day it was made to him, a reminder of what he had been, and still was deep down inside. One scar, was nowhere near faded; it stood bright against his tanned body. It was the longest by far, and had been the closest to taking his life. He remembered giving up, realizing he could never do any better then his past. Then just as the darkness began to crumble over him and take him up all together, there he was. Holding him as he bled, yelling for someone to help. Schuldich remembered, even through the haze of death, thinking that this was what he had wanted from the very moment the two of them met. To be held in his warm embrace and hear words of comfort come from the older man and it was only then that he was dying that he got it. At that moment, it had felt like the world was giving him one last kick in the face on his way out. When he came to in the small, very privet, hospital owned and operated exclusively by Esstet, he thought that things would be different between him and his beloved. He was a fucking telepath, he should have known better. Things were the same as they had always been. Schuldich made repeated passes, and Bradley Crawford blocked each and every one. Brad had no interest in Schu, and made that almost painfully clear. Though he did realize just how much Schu wanted him and that helped a little. Brad wasn't so quick to block Schu out of his mind, and he didn't send very nasty, and painful, thoughts to Schu when he realized the tall redhead was intently staring after him as he walked away. And best of all, Schu now could call him Brad without being yelled at profusely. In front of the others he still would receive a frown and sharpness from the eyes behind the glasses that was only Brad, but he still got away with it. The others would be hacked to bits if they called him anything but Crawford. It had only taken Schuldich a nearly fatal suicide attempt for him to earn the right to call the leader of Schwarz, Brad. Was it worth it, to Schuldich, hell ya. Schuldich was still contemplating this as he stood waiting for the man himself to make his grand appearance and explain what this meeting was all about. Esstet was still trying to rebuild, but they all had thought that Schwarz was off of the remolding plans. Maybe not after all. "Do you have any idea what this is all about?" came a calm, almost too calm, voice from the young teenager sitting on his left. Nagi. A very bright and talented kid, and old way beyond his years. "I don't know, all I could pick outta his head was something about the fact he feels like were being treated like an American football team, whatever the hell that means." Schuldich replied, out loud for a change from his mental voice. He wanted to try and keep the silence broken so that his thoughts wouldn't have to keep wandering back to very unpleasant memories. "I don't care what its about," said the pale scar covered man standing by the door. His one gold eye twinkled with delight from probably just killing something or someone. "I gotta be lose on the streets all day yesterday, and the day before to do as I pleased. I like whatever this is about." "Yes we know Farfarello. The police reports are still coming in." Nagi said, again, very calmly. Nothing ever got to this kid. Schu just threw on his trademark grin, it never quite made it to his eyes, but then, it wasn't meant to. Finally after a few more idle minutes Brad Crawford walked in through the door just to the right of where Schu leaned and over to the table by Nagi. He tossed down two thin manila folders and looked at his teammates. The cocky red haired German who was always trying to get him in to bed leaned near the far door that he had just come through, smirk in place. At the table in front of him sat Nagi and just past him standing in a slightly dark corner, probably licking something pointed and deadly was the white haired homicidal maniac. Well he had a fine group to work with. He gently motioned down to the folders and said the words that he hoped would allow them to keep their jobs. "I'd like you all to meet the Second Stringers." 


	2. A New Arrival

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter One: A New Arrival  
  
//mental conversations// 'mental thoughts'  
  
"Second stringers, I'm afraid I don't quite understand." Nagi replied in his calm matter. Schuldich on the other hand was interested to a point he hadn't been in some time. "Ain't that some kinda sports term, right." He guessed, well guessed to the point that a mind reader can without crossing that ever so thin line and simply knowing. He flopped down at the table, closest to Nagi and farthest from Brad. Sitting to close to Brad made him think thoughts that were very far from what he was normally supposed to think at these stupid meetings. "Yes, a football term I believe." Crawford told his onlookers politely catering to their level. Nagi was deeply enveloped in one of the folders, studying it more than necessary. Schuldich was mindlessly flipping through the other, probably looking for the colored illustrations if Brad had to wager a guess. He knew from experience that Schu would not read a single word of the papers in that folder. Simply memorize anything bright and flashy in it and take whatever info he needed later out of someone's head. An annoying habit, but for the most part it worked. "What exactly does that have to do with us, or Farfarello's little murdering spree?" Nagi actually voiced, emotion, with that question. 'Wow, his interest must be very peaked at this.' Schu thought to himself. "When the first set of players is getting tired, or the coach thinks they need to liven things up some more to get the results they want, winning in other words, they bring in the second stringers. Those who weren't good enough the first time around, but in desperate cases become good enough." Crawford explained. The three blank looks that received him was enough to convince him that sometimes he felt like he was already dealing with the second stringers. "And this deals with us how?" Nagi asked, looking back down to the folder in his hands. A girl with wild green hair, shinning silver eyes and a devil may care smile looked up at him. She was barley 8 by the looks of it, but then again the picture was dated 10 years ago. Something about her just didn't make sense though. "Crawford, according to this, this girl was powerful, why is she only being brought in as a second stringer?" he asked their oh too smug leader. "Same goes for this pretty thing." Schuldich sneered as he threw down his folder. A cute little girl with bushy hair and sharp eyes framed by thin glasses looked up from the page. She had no expression. Details were hard to gather from the photo, it was black and white, and very old from the look of it. At his comment though Schu received one of the dirtiest looks the world could imagine from Crawford. He pissed him off again, nothing new, so Schuldich ignored it as always. "Schwarz was originally to have seven members. The four of us, these two girls, and one other. The other three were dismissed for their own reasons, but mostly because they could not control their powers. It would be pointless for Esstet at the time to train them completely when there was no hope of them ever truly joining. Now they have decided its worth the risk, and they want us to bring in these two." Crawford said, but didn't really revel in his own voice like he normally did. He was distracted by the look of the girl staring up at him from the photo on the table. "The third member?" Nagi questioned him, this could get very interesting if new people starting popping up everywhere. And lately this place needed some excitement other then when Farfarello forgot to take his meds, Nagi thought to himself. //Why Nags we could always make our own excitement.// Schu remarked in Nagi's head. //Stay out of my head and pay attention to Crawford for once.// Nagi shot back at him. His mental voice held less expression then his real voice did. "Still off limits, doesn't matter, with these two, nothing will be beyond us." Still his eyes didn't move from the photo. He hadn't even noticed the mental conversion between his other teammates, normally that was something he would bitch at them about. He hadn't even blinked hardly. Not until the he noticed that the knife licking psychopath from the corner had moved closer to the table. "What's this gotta do with me?" the gruff voice asked, breaking the momentary silence. "Well the one girl." Brad started but was suddenly cut off as a piercing scream came from the hallway outside the far door. All four pairs of eyes shifted to the doorway. Then with a burst of squealed excitement a small flash of green came tumbling through and jumped, no, leapt is the more appropriate term, in to Farfarello's arms. The blur was quickly identified as a girl, small and thin yet very capable from the look of it. Her legs were wound around the maniac's waist and her arms wrapped tightly to his neck. Her bright green hair bobbed out in a long ponytail and her jeans were ripped and the thin tank she was wearing was stained with Gods know what. She looked like typical street trash. Schu and Nagi waited for the carnage to begin, Brad just gave the situation an annoyed glare, and looked back at the picture on the table. If a normal piece of street trash came running in to the room and flung themselves on the resident lunatic, it would not have been a pretty site. Farfarello raised his arms, one of which was still holding his knife, and began to bring them behind the girl's back. 'This is it, she's dead.' Thought Schu. But instead of a bloody knife through her back, he, well, embraced her. He was hugging her. This was something new. The maniac was hugging a bouncing girl that had wrapped herself around him. "Been a long time." he said as he suddenly pulled back to the point that he could look in to her eyes. "Wanna go play blender with me?" He suddenly asked in a voice much to giddy and happy to be his own. The girl lightly cocked her head to the side in what looked like it might be a condescending look. "Farfie, does it have a puree setting?" she asked him in a voice that sounded stern yet excited and full of wonder all together, and almost shameful too. "Of course!" the manic replied. Then with a sudden shift of emotions the girl leapt down, flashed the room a smile that could make even Schuldich jealous and grabbed Farfarello's hand and pulled him out the door she had burst in, shouting at him, "I'll race you there!" all the while. "Well. That was different." Nagi said still staring after the two, now listening to the faint sounds of homicidal giggling and the whirling of the blender's motor. Even his jaw was still several inches from being closed. Schuldich managed to turn his head from the door to stare, with something a keen to horror on his face, at Crawford. Who had not even blinked twice at the whole scene that had just developed in front of him. Schu tried more then once to check her mind, somewhat scared of what he might find. Instead he was shocked to his core at what he did find. A brick wall. He didn't understand it. Brad had shields of course, but just a wall, a stopper. She, she had walls everywhere. Built high and far, coving everything, every little surface thought even. There was no way for him to read her. It was as blank as if she had no mind. Just a patch of empty space. Which by her actions was a possibility, but still. That was it, he couldn't stand still and quite any longer. He had to know what the hell was going on. "What-the-HELL-was-that!" finally came spilling out of his mouth. Brad glanced over at him, making the ever slightest amount of eye contact before he went back to looking at the folder that Schu had abandoned. "That was Tinkerbell." Was all Brad said to the matter. "Tinkerbell, that's the code name of her," Nagi informed the other two, as he pointed at the folder he dropped when the first scream was heard. He was acting as if he was the only person who could have ever known it, a trait that Crawford had managed to bestow in him. "Ekaterina, Dasha. Originally from Russia. One of the 'second stringers'." he said in a matter of fact tone. "How did she find us after being left in, what was it, Ireland or Germany, nearly 6 years ago?" Forget all previously mentions to him being calm, at this point, after finishing his little speech, this kid was now completely unaware that there was such a thing as self-restraint and was about to let his curiosity explode from him. "Yes, and it was Germany, and only 5 years, and it was quite easy for her to find us once she picked up Farfarello's mind pattern." Crawford told the shocked men sitting around him as if he was commenting on a chance of rain latter today. Nagi looked ready to curl up and cry with the fact that he was not getting a single one of his questions answered in any way that actually helped him. Schu looked ready to jump Brad, for more then his obvious reasons this time though. //GIVE ME A GOD DAMN STRAIGHT ANSWER BRAD!!!// Schuldich screamed in to the other mans mind. He was rewarded with a simple look and a heavy sigh. "Fine. Tinkerbell, and please only call her that, it gets, messy, when her former name is used, has the gift of mind absorbing. Or as she would call it, soul snatching, draining. She can read a persons entire soul and absorb every detail of it. She becomes part of that person for a while. If she holds too long she will become that person for sometime. Also she will have established a link with them that will allow her to trace them anywhere." Brad told the two. "Oh, that explains the name." Schu said simply, reading Brads mind. "Nani?" questioned Nagi, part of his calm personality returning. "She fancied her self like one of those bells a cat wears. So you'll always know where they are. That's what she felt like, a tinkerbell." Schu explained. "Yes, but the down side to her powers is the after effect. She can't shake certain parts of the persons being from her mind. She will always be able to follow them, it will decrease with time, but if they are anywhere within any proximity to her and still alive, she will find them. And of course some of the more, shall we say unusual, traits tend to stick permanently." With his last words Brad both coughed and motioned to the doorway in which the blender could be heard coming from. "You're kidding me?" Schu asked, again startled by Brad's mind. "This is a hell of a lot calmer then when she was first forced to test her abilities out against Farfarello." He told Nagi, before the teenager was forced to ask what yet again. "She never was the problem. The problem will be," Brad paused, almost as if he couldn't think of the correct name, and finally giving up. "this one." He tossed the file down again, next to Nagi this time, who actually would put it to its intended purpose, reading it. Unlike Schuldich. "She will be harder to find, and to bring in. She broke ties with Esstet many years ago, after leaving mid-mission and destroying years of work at infiltrating Kritiker." Brad explained. "Why wasn't she killed then?" Schuldich voiced the question that was running though both his and Nagi's head. "Simply because Esstet thought that this day would come, when she would be needed again. And now it has." Crawford told them as he got up and begun to head to the door. They could handle the rest from here without him. And he figured he had better stop the two in the kitchen before they did something they, or he, would regret. "Oh, I see, this will be quite interesting." Nagi voiced his growing curiosity as he read over the folder in his hands. Yes this would be quite interesting, never before did the men of Schwarz have something like this fall in to their laps. 


	3. A Weiß Mission

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter Two: A Weiß Mission  
  
"You make ANY comment and I will kill you." Yohji threatened the rest of the Weiß team, and as if to prove it he lightly fingered the watch on his wrist that held his razor wire. He was met with no comment, but lots of cockeyed looks and snickers. Even Aya, fearless leader, never talking, stone statue, Mr. I-have-no-emotions, was hard pressed to keep from laughing at this one, he already had given up any attempts at holding in his smirk. The smell helped stop the laughter though. The thing that seemed so amusing to all the Weiß members, and even Manx who had come by to give them there next mission, even before the last one was completed, was Yohji's predicament. He and Ken had been chasing down Farfarello. He had been on some sort of killing spree. Hitting mostly churches and convents, and the occasional sidewalk preacher. He had given the two of them a run for their money and ended up leading then to a marina. Where he lost them shortly after dunking, and nearly drowning, Yohji in a tub of fish wastes. Yohji was now standing in the door way with a Ken who looked like he could die from laughing so hard, no doubt on the entire way here. Finally, after the room had settled down a little and Yohji had managed to pull some of the lager pieces of fish off his clothes and from his hair, Ken was under control enough to speak. "We lost Berserker and, and my car needs to be fumigated before it can be used again." He choked out and would have started laughing again if he hadn't been hit square in the face with a fish head. "Listen up. We have a new mission." Came the cold replay from the red headed leader standing in the corner. His voice held the icy tone it always did, yet as he looked in to Yohji's eyes he smiled again, he couldn't help it, it was just to funny. Yohji walked around to his side and carefully whispered in his ear so that no one else could hear, "Keep it up Aya and you won't be getting any for a VERY long time." "Um, yes. Let's start." Manx told the assassins as they fell in to their places, Yohji was allowed to claim the far spot, isolated, leaning against the wall, where Aya normally stood. It wasn't kindness that gave him that opportunity, but simply the fact that he smelled horribly of rotten fish. "This is a slightly different mission then you're used to. It's a recovery operation." She explained. "That's not that new, we done those quite a lot." Omi said to her in his too cheerful-for-my-line-of-work voice. "Well, not exactly. This is what you have to retrieve." Manx pressed a button on the remote she was holding and the face of a young girl popped up on the screen. The photo was black and white. It looked like it might have been an old Kritiker ID picture. Her face was void of any emotion and her eyes stared out blankly from the thin wire framed glasses around them. "And we need her alive." Manx finished as she looked at the faces now trained on the screen. All of them were looking with the detail absorbing eyes that only trained killers have. But also puzzlement settled on their faces, and almost worry on the face of their leader. Manx knew why, but that wasn't important now, not to this mission, not yet anyway. "This girl worked with Kritiker from the time she was 11, till approximately the age of fifteen. When she abruptly abandoned us and her true loyalties were identified as being that of Esstet. She had been working under cover for them the entire time she was with us. She knows most of our secrets, and all of theirs." Manx explained to the young men. "That had to be at least three years ago. Why wasn't she dealt with then at that time?" Ken asked, still studying the picture, trying to imagine what she would look like now all these years later. "There was no need. Almost as soon as she cut ties with us, she repeated the process by cutting off all ties with Esstet. Then she simply vanished. When she did  
  
reappear a year or so back, it was evident she wanted no part of either Esstet or Kritiker. And Esstet had no interest in her at that time, so neither did we." "Then why start up all of this again. Esstet went under I thought." Aya snapped at her with more then his usual disdain. "Esstet never went completely under. They're trying to rebuild, and they are also trying to bring in their previously forgotten, lost, or abandoned members." She pressed another button and the picture flashed to a different one. It showed another young girl, this one with a bright smile and long green hair framing her thin face and darkened eyes. "The girl you are after is one of them. This girl was another." Manx motioned to the screen. "Tinkerbell was the only name we could identify her as. Originally it was thought that they were trying to bring in three new, previously unneeded, or forgotten members. It has now been confirmed that only these two girls were on the targeting list. Schwarz already has this one. We need you to find the other before they get to her as well." Manx looked exhausted from trying to explain all that as fast as she had. They needed to move, and fast. She couldn't spend the rest of the night talking, or they'd lose their only chance for sure. "How are we going to find her?" Omi asked with mild curiosity. What he really wanted to know why it had been Schwarz that was going after these girls and not just some dummy Esstet group, but he knew that wouldn't get answered. It wasn't important to the mission. "That is the easy part. We have kept a tab on her ever since she reappeared. And her lifestyle wasn't that hard to track." Another button was pressed and various pictures of clubs and bars flashed to the screen, as well as sleazy motels and street corners. She had become common trash, turning tricks and getting high instead of remaining in the real world. "She can be found mostly at a club called Velvet Dreams. It's a hot spot rave place and moves around a lot. We have its location pinned down for tonight at least. That alone took us three weeks to do so we need you to move right now, and get her back her ASAP. If you move out now you should be able to get her back here before dawn. If not, we'll lose the clubs location, and her. Possibly for good. We just need one of you to pick her up, as a trick. Get her in your vehicle, and use a knockout on her to get her back her where I'll be waiting." Manx looked around at the men, well actually to her, three men and one boy. "This mission leaves Bombay out understandably." She said flatly. He looked slightly hurt but realized it was best, he was underage and couldn't get near the club, much less be convincing enough to pick a hooker up. Manx's eyes looked directly at Yohji instead. "Sorry sister, not until I get a shower and some new clothes." And with that he headed off and up the stair to the bathroom. "We don't have that time to waste, not when we're battling against Schwarz here. So that leaves either Siberian or..." her eyes looked over at the tall, pale, figure hiding in the shadows. His eyes full of amethyst ice and a demeanor about him that just screamed, 'I'll kill you all'. "That just leaves Siberian." She concluded after realizing Aya would never succeed in a mission like this. "I'm on it." Ken said. He had already removed his battle clothes and was loading one of Omi's knockout darts discreetly in to his kakis pocket. "I need to use someone's car though, seriously, mine reeks. And I can't pick up anyone on my motorcycle." He said as he cautiously looked at the resident Porsche driver with puppy dog eyes. Aya reluctantly held out his keys. "If you screw up, and I find even a hairline scratch on it, your dead." He told the younger brunette as he took the keys, and his tone of voice was one that made  
  
sure you knew he was NOT kidding. Ken took the keys, the directions from Manx, the updated photo, and left. This was one assignment he just might like, or at least one he really could 'get something' out of if he played it just right. With that thought and a wicked smile on his face he sped out of the garage on his way to the Velvet Dreams rave club. 


	4. Velvet Dreams

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter Three: Velvet Dreams  
  
'mental thoughts'  
  
Ken sighed lightly as he leaned against his borrowed Porsche. His eyes were scanning the crowed of the people who were constantly flowing in and out of the club. Well it was more of an abandoned building with flashing lights then a club. And filled to the brim with people looking to disappear, to forget, to remember, or who knows what else. He had tried to go in to that swirling mass of people, twice. He couldn't make it past the bouncer. He looked like the typical nark. Or better yet, a rich kid wanting to have fun with no idea of what they were getting in to. He certainly was not your average clubber, much less some one to frequent the best rave in all of Tokyo. Finally, she came out, and it was a good thing for him too. He hadn't really wanted to go back and tell everyone he'd failed simply because he wasn't 'cool' enough to get in. Manx had been right when she first looked at Yohji for this mission, he would have already been back with her by now. 'Oh well, I'm in charge now.' Ken thought to himself. 'If I could only figure out how to pick her up with out making an ass of myself.' He watched as she walked slowly over to a near by light post with, 'oh god willing let it be a cigarette and not what I think it really is', lit up between he lips. She took a few drags and handed it off to a guy who came up from behind her, still swaying to the pounding thud of the music from the building behind them. She received a kiss, well, kiss was a loose term for it, but that was all Ken could come up with. It was more like having sex with only their mouths he finally decided, and somehow the girl also managed to steal the guy's wallet. As Ken watched her he noticed that she looked different then Manx had made her out to seem. She didn't look worn over by the world as one who was in her place might be. Her black pants hung low on her slender hips, the pale blue shirt she wore rode high and was cut low. Its sleeves were merely wisps of silk that billowed out in to the night. Her hair, in the picture he held appeared to be nearly black, now shone with natural color as the flashing lights reflected off it. It was purple. The darkest shade of which could be imagined. It was long and fell well over her back and beyond. She didn't have whore tattooed on her as many of the girls, and guys, that had been passing by Ken did, but there was no mistaking it, she was a trick. 'Now or never.' Ken figured as he started over to her, stopping to toss his wallet in the back of the car first, he didn't have much in there, but keeping it was something he'd like to do. He hadn't made it two steps when she was right there beside him. She stood just slightly shorter then him, and her eyes looked him over as if he were a piece of meat. "Forget kid." She said with a causal flick of her hair as she turned around. "Hey, wait a minute!" He called to her departing figure. 'What the hell just happened.' "I ain't for you kid. Though I do like the car. To bad its not yours" She said giving him a quick look over her shoulder and a half smile. This kid was cute, it was a shame, she would have liked to have some fun with him, but what he had in mind wasn't her idea of fun. "I didn't even say a thing!" Ken shouted out of confusion. 'I have been waiting here for two, nearly three hours and I wasn't even going to be able to bring in the target, a stupid piece of street trash. This is not good.' "You didn't have to, you smell of it, or actually you don't which is the problem. You're too clean, for this, and for me, go home kid." And with that she vanished from the crowed sidewalk and back inside, the night was far from young, yet also far from being over. She had time, and thanks to an anonymous wallet, money enough to make it last a little longer. Ken stared after her for a little while longer. 'This is horrible, two plus hours down and nothing.' Maybe if he went back home with his tail between his legs now, Yohji might have a chance at grabbing her yet tonight. He hoped anyway. They, Weiß, had never failed in a mission yet, and this was just too simple to let it be their first.  
  
Ken slowly walked in and sat the keys down in the waiting palm of their true owner. Aya didn't even ask his normal 'humph' which was generally interpreted as, 'How'd the mission go?'. Then Ken sheepishly looked around. No one was glaring at him, or ready to yell from the look of it. The all just looked like they'd been waiting for this, for him to come home, alone. 'Wow, a lot of faith they have in me.' He thought bitterly. Yohji stood up and stretched. The belly shirt he was wearing slid even farther up his perfectly formed abdomen and the light glanced off his golden tan skin. The leather of his pants was so tight Ken was surprised that Yohji could breath. His arms were bare underneath the sleeveless shirt, and it was still warm out, so he wouldn't need a jacket. He strode off to the door, passing Ken without a word. "Be quick Yohji, this will be the last shot we have." Manx finally spoke from the couch she was sitting on. Breaking the deafening silence that Ken felt. "Quick? Manx, my dear, I pride myself on my stamina, maybe someday you can find out first hand even." He told the red haired 'secretary as he walked out and to his waiting Super Seven. "Watch it." Came the cold warning about his lame pick up line thrown at Manx, but it didn't come from her, it came from Aya. The man he fancied as his boyfriend. Yohji just flashed his famous smile and left. "So, you all just planed on me failing huh. Sure know how to make a guy feel special." Ken grumbled as he flopped down on the floor with his back to the arm of the chair Omi was in. "Oh, it's not like that at all Ken-ken." Omi peered down at him, and gave him a reassuring pat to the head. "Manx just thought it would be nice to be ready to move right away in the slight chance you wouldn't make it. That's all." His genki voice doing its best to cheer him up.  
  
A grumpy 'humph' was all the former soccer player could mange to come back with.  
  
Yohji swayed on the balcony to the pounding music of Velvet Dreams rave club, eyes scanning the crowd below. He'd had no problem getting in to the club, hell, he'd even known the bouncer from his last job at the Rainbow Room down on East Street. Now he just had to find the girl. The mass of people could have absorbed anyone in to its depths and kept them completely concealed forever, and it would have her too, he had not been a trained assassin. He was used to picking needles out of haystacks, and this was no different. It was only 40 minutes, if that, before he found her. She was dancing in the middle of the room. A statue of purple, blue, and black. The eye of the storm of people, standing out in the sea around her. Her body moved with the rhythm of the music like a surfer rides the waves. There was a perfect unison between the two. As Yohji watched she came in to contact with person after person. Her lips and hands moving close to ears and other lips, as well as other various body parts, while receiving the same motions back. She was the wave that rolled through the sea, letting the currents change and move to fit her. Bodies pressed close and tangled together in the night. It wasn't long from the time that Yohji had started watching her that her body found its self pressed tightly against that of another female, taller and older then herself. Their hands clasped and the taller woman's head dipped down to the youngers and lips met lips and tongues met tongues. Yohji watched with the interest his job entailed, and yet still managed to allow a smile to flow to his face, while most of his blood seemed to be flowing in to a different body part. Even as erotic as the kiss was, Yohji could see it for what it was. He was an expert of the club scene after all. The bodies pressing together was nothing more then the contact that it was, the hands lightly grasping at each other was but the most convenient way to pass the bills from one hand to the other, and the very open, full tongue kiss for the world to see, a simple exchange of that tiny slip of paper known as acid. The girl was good, but still not so good Yohji couldn't see through it. That didn't make him any less turned on though. He finally allowed his eyes to avert and his body to surge through the drifting crowed and to the door. He knew exactly how to get her now all he'd have to do is just wait for her to come out.  
  
As it turned out, Yohji didn't have to wait long. He had just pulled the Super Seven up to the edge of the curb when he seen her walking away from the main building. 'Maybe calling it quits for the night. Naw, not after what I saw of her. Not this early. She's most likely just getting some air.' He thought. "Hey hottie, over here." He called out to her, motioning her to his car. He had done this before, many times. Just mostly not with women, and defiantly without Aya's knowledge. She started over, slowed to a near stop halfway there and staggered before shaking her head and making it to his car. That made Yohji wonder just how much acid, and who knew what else, this girl had already taken tonight. She didn't look that out of it though. She leaned heavily across the passenger door to get close to Yohji and at the same time giving him a nice view right down her shirt. "Are you going to get in or what koi(*1)?" he asked her in his most sultry tone. He knew he really didn't have to lay it on so thick, for crying out loud, the girl was a trick. But there was something about her youth and hidden beauty that made him feel like he owed it to her. "It depends, whatta ya got to interest me?" she responded with a crisp voice, full of innuendo, but not in the slightest slurred, as one might expect. An evil smirk flashed across Yohji's face as he simply held up his hand with a single joint in it. The girl quickly shrugged and took it, hopping over the door and planting herself next to him. His hand then moved to the ignition of the car, planning on getting them somewhere a little more private before he took her back to the Koneko. "No no honig(*2). This just got me in the car, not in your pants, yet." She told the blond playboy as her hand stopped his from turning the key. He sighed lightly at the comment and held out his hand with another joint. "What'll this get me?" he asked her. "That will get me down on you." She told him flatly. This was her job as much as being an assassin was his, and neither one of them messed around, figuratively speaking, when it came to their line of work. Yohji handed her the joint and before he had a chance to undo his pants himself, or start the car, her fingers were already at his fly. He wasn't even given a second to think a single thought much less string two or three together and remind himself of what he was doing here, besides the obvious. At one point he had planned to stick her with the tranquilizer as soon as she bent over his lap. Well that definitely wasn't going to happen now. Before Yohji had the chance to get his mind back in working order, she had taken his entire rigid length in to her hot mouth. At that second Yohji hadn't even been able to breathe. While he wasn't one to brag, well he was but that was beside the point, he was very well endowed. Even Aya, who had the benefit of many months of practice, couldn't take Yohji's whole length, much less just all at once in such a mind stopping move. "Oh gods.." he gasped out as he felt her slowly work him in her mouth. His head rolled back against the headrest and it was all Yohji could do to stay breathing. This was a pleasure overload if he'd ever felt one. 'My god this girl knows what she's doing.' Yohji would be the first one to openly admit he was bi, but it was a better kept fact that he indeed preferred the company of men over women. He didn't know why but he figured it came down to the simple fact of the matter that they had the same goods to work with day in and day out and knew what felt good. This girl was very quickly changing his mind though. As her expert mouth worked over the iron shaft placed between her soft lips it was all Yohji could do to remember he had to knock her out and get her back to base. Soon, and way too soon for Yohji's liking, but she had pushed him to a point where even his great stamina was shattered, it ended. Before he could even begin to move again in the moments following his climax, much less get the dart in to the girl, he realized that he was in fact, tucked neatly away, there was nothing to clean, her expert mouth had caught ever drop. And not only that but when he looked to where she should have been sitting, he found the seat empty. Only to have his head abruptly turned to the side but a soft palm on his cheek. She was standing outside the car on the driver's side looking down in to Yohji's sea green eyes.  
"You should come back when you don't have anything else planned, I'd love to have you again. You taste good, honig." She told him as she gently gave him a peck on the lips and returned to the swaying sea of the rave that seemed to part just for her and then close back around her again, swallowing her whole. Leaving Yohji spent and dumfounded in the seven. Deprived of two, no make that all three joints he had brought with him, and his wallet, he wondered just when she had gotten a hold of that, her hands always seemed to be.'Okay Yohji, don't think back to that, don't need to get hard again knowing damn well after a failed mission Aya isn't about to put out.' And that's what it was too, a failed mission. The night was nearly over and the club would soon be shutting down for the night and moving is location. There one easy shot had been completely missed, the blond playboy of Weiß hadn't been able to pick up a simple hooker. Manx had been right when she said this wasn't going to be as easy as it looked, and now both he and Ken knew first hand. "Well, if Ken was lucky he might have a least got as much fun as I did tonight, even if we did fail completely." Yohji told himself as he sped back to the Koneko.  
  
Yohji walked in and looked at the waiting faces of his teammates. They all looked shocked beyond belief. He hadn't comeback with the girl. "Balinese, what.." Manx started to ask and just stopped. She couldn't conceive of how the resident partier had NOT been able to get a hooker, 'I mean he even got to me once, well twice actually but I don't count the one time, I'd been drinking and.' "Aya where ya going?" Ken's voice broke in to Manx's thoughts and brought her back to reality. A reality that showed it was nearly 5 in the morning and if the Rave was still going now, the cops would break it up soon and there best chance to get the little brat that had been giving them trouble since she was 11, was gone. Also in this reality, Aya was heading out the door with his keys in his hand. "To pick up the target." He said coldly as he kept moving. "Get real Aya, Omi would have a better chance then you." Ken told him flat out. Ken received a glare of icy death in return that literally did make him shudder a little. "Abyssinian, if Balinese couldn't get the girl, no offense, I doubt you will." Manx told the ivory skinned red head. "And besides, we need her alive." "I'll be back in 10 minutes." Was all he would say as he brushed passed Yohji who had barely had time to come in through the door before everything had developed in front of him. Manx sighed and secretly worried if a meeting between those two, under circumstances like these, wouldn't spell death to one or the other. She sincerely hoped not. "It was unreal." Yohji told the others as he flopped down on the couch and let his arm drape around Manx. "It was like she knew why I was there and made sure I was going to fail." "Like she was in your head or something, right?" Ken agreed with Yohji. 'Like she was in their heads, like she knew what was going on, and made sure they'd fail.' Omi thought over Ken and Yohji's words. He was seriously beginning to question why it was Schwartz and not a lackey group, and he also was beginning to make a wild guess, one he didn't like very much if things didn't start turning around, and soon.  
  
She walked slowly down the street. It had been exactly 39 minutes since she had left the club. She always left 47 minutes before the cops showed up. Exactly 47 minutes. It took just that amount of time to be nearly 3 miles away, 2 miles and 470 yards and 2 feet to be exact, and she was exact. She always was, it was just part of who she was, whether or not she liked it made no difference. That distance, which she knew so well, was just far enough away to not have the cops arrest her when they came, and they always came. She always knew they would, and when they would too, just more of who she was. Her arms swayed gently at her sides as the breeze swirled the dark clouds of her hair around her face. She barley noticed the white Porsche pull up, if she had been anyone else, she wouldn't have at all. "Not you again kid." she started even before the window was rolled down, then just as she took a step forward on her path, she realized it wasn't the kid, and she turned to face the car. Aya simply looked over from the driver's seat and met her eyes through the now open passenger side window. "Get in." was all he said as he broke the stare and the silence that it had created. It had felt like forever, yet it had been less then a minute, 53 seconds to be exact, and as before she knew she was exact. She looked blankly at him for another second, 3.2 seconds actually, and then shrugged and opened the door to flop down next to him. He gunned the car and sped off to the flower shop as soon as the door clicked shut, with the girl simply setting there watching the scenery. She knew that he held just about the same fate for her as the other two did, but now she didn't care. She had no need, no want, to fight with him. She was cooperating for him, he had known all along she would have. He hadn't even brought any tranquilizers to begin with. She smiled as she realized that and then let her mind wander back outside to the passing scenery, it was going fast, real fast. Her mind almost wondered how fast they were going, but before the thought was even finished she knew they were going about 40 OVER the limit. 'He always had liked to drive fast, didn't he, yes he did. Kuso, it was time for another fix, definitely. If only I knew where to find a needle.too many places at once, but the cash, to many choices, sleep, good, quite.' and with that final thought she was out. Aya heard the pitiful squeak escape the girl's lips just before she allowed the sleep to consume her with its ever-fading darkness. 'She has changed, changed so much, but it is her, isn't it?' Unlike the girl, he didn't receive an answer.  
  
Aya pulled into the garage of the flower shop 13 minutes after he had left. Good time, but then when you take in the fact that if the assassin thing ever failed Aya could have a gig as a racecar driver, it made sense. As he walked in he realized no one expected him to come back with the girl, if at all. Omi was slumped over his computer asleep from looking at what was probably questionable material, Yohji was in front of the TV with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, also probably looking at questionable material on the late night adults only channel. Ken was reading for a change, true it was a biography of an American soccer player, but it was reading, Aya had to give him that. Manx was longing on the couch looking board and wishing she could be anywhere but here. Aya received a slight look from both her and Yohji as he walked in. Then Yohji's mouth proceeded to drop as wide as it could and as cigarette that had been in there fell out and to the floor. Because right behind Aya stood the target. Not only had he not killed her, he hadn't even tranquilized her, or forced her much less. She had come in with him of her own free will. "Cute place. Better then that old hole in the wall, don't you think Aya- schatz(*3)?" she asked, then before anyone could even blink, "Oh course you do, the people make the place. Mien shinigami(*4)." She sighed softly. Then flashed a sweet and sultry grin at Yohji. "Before you all start asking my a ton of questions, and I really mean before or I wont let you ask me a thing, why don't you go get that nice stash of yours blondie and I'll get myself in a proper mood for it all." With that she walked over and flopped down on the couch, stretching out and falling pleasantly in to the dark leather of it. "I'm not stupid Manx, I ain't going to try anything that would get me killed." She spoke without even a look in the red haired woman's direction. After she appeared to be at least part way comfortable on the couch the girl looked around the room. Omi was still asleep and the rest of the room had been to shocked to make any noise, plus by nature both her and Aya were quite people. Manx had jumped up though and started to say something before the girl had cut her off with her earlier statement. Ken was just staring wide-eyed above his book. The girl then smiled. She liked having that effect on people, and she always did when she wanted to. Now was one of those times, 'How else could I make it interesting? Oh, that would be fun.' "Yohji-kun, the stash please?" she said again looking at the eldest Weiß member. Now Manx flipped her attention to HIM. "Manx, now she's full of it, I ain't got no." he tried to clear himself, but didn't make it to far. "Yeah you do. In a lock box under your bed, the key is in the third drawer of your dresser in a sock stuffed in the corner." She said simply, then shrugged. "Or at least that's where I'd keep mine." She smiled at the expression on his face. 'Man do I ever love this, well not really, but it could be fun, except that,' "Ah, now. Please." She looked again in to his eyes with a brief glimmer of pain flashing across her own. "Go ahead Yohji. I won't let it get back to Persia." The lanky redhead said in a huff as she sat down in an empty chair. Aya promptly placed himself on the couch next to the girl he'd brought home. They all sat there for a minute in silence before Yohji came back down the stairs and tossed his stash, and a lighter, at her. She promptly lit up and was well on the way to making herself high as a kite. 'She doesn't act like it though,' Yohji thought to him self, 'She acts like the stuff has no effect on her, and I know its some pretty good shit from experience, either she has a VERY high tolerance, or something else.' "I take it I now can begin." Manx asked briskly, this isn't what she'd had in mind. "Just a sec," the girl told her and turned her head to behind the couch towards where Omi was still asleep. In the process she managed to drape one of her legs over Aya's thighs and place a hand on his chest, he didn't seem to mind either, Yohji on the other hand was steaming. "Hey, Omi-kun, wake up koi, I don't think you wanna miss this." She called out, waking the boy and shocking the others right down to their very existence. She turned back and shrugged, not untangling her self from Aya, as Omi, a very confused Omi, walked over. "Now then, Himura Kytee(*5), I." Manx began, again she was promptly cut off. "Nope, not anymore. Just Sünde from now on." The girl told her. A light look passed over her face as she said the name but it was soon washed away as she took another hit off the joint, the third one since she'd got there.  
  
"Very well, Sünde, I asked Weiß to pick you up today in order to offer you a proposition." Manx waited, knowing some answer had to come, and it did. Just not from who she'd expected. "Why, can't it just be left alone, no one the wiser, put her further underground instead of all this." Aya asked in his normal cold voice, but yet, it was Aya, not one you'd expect it from. And no matter the tone of those words, that many at once, just didn't seem right. "No it can't be. Not now, and Manx knows that. If she, Kritiker, doesn't get me, Esstet will, and you guys don't want that." Sünde told the room matter-o-factly, before they could comment on Aya's weird behavior. Her mind was finally beginning to cloud back over, making things easier to ignore and not focus. 'Good,' she thought, 'Very good.' "So what, am I supposed just to jump in and be a part of Kritiker now, no, no you want me with Weiß. Just cause of him. It ain't going to work though." Everyone but Manx and Aya looked lost at her last comment. Ken still just sat there wide-eyed and wondering what he was hearing, Omi looked like he wished he was still asleep, and Yohji, well Yohji was wallowing in a jealous pit watching that girl plaster herself on top of and smother of HIS boyfriend. "Now, Sünde, don't jump to any rash decisions, I'm sure that you would realize," Manx was, again, cut off. She was getting quite sick of this. She had half a mind to take Aya up on his idea of throwing her back in to the under ground just for spite. "Listen, you know I ain't going to take you up on any offer puppen(*6), you don't trust me any more now then you did then." She told her flatly. The confusion deepening on the others faces, except again for Aya. He just seemed to snuggle closer to the girl, if that was possible given the way she had herself draped on him. "Wait a minute." Omi spoke up through a yawn. "You're Japanese right, I mean Himura is a Japanese name, and you look it, so how come you're speaking half German?" he asked her, accessing her for the first time really. She did have the slight look of a Japanese, yet there was just something off. "Cause, I'm, or at least was, Kritiker, and Esstet. Of course I know German." She told him plainly, as if his question hadn't even required the slightest amount of thought. "I'm, we're, Kritiker too, and I don't know German." Omi told her in the defensive way that only a 17-year-old assassin still going through puberty and possessing the innocence of a child could. She could have sworn he smiled too. Definitely time for another joint. "Yes you do." She told him, smirking wildly and allowing her eyes to flash with emotions boiling under a hard exterior. "No, I don't." this was going to be an elementary yelling match, he could see that now. "Yes you do, or you wouldn't have know that that was the language I was speaking." 'Okay,' he guessed that made sense, 'If I truly hadn't known German, I would have had no clue what she'd been saying. Now I still didn't comprehend the words, but the language I knew. She's right.' "Ah, not to get off subject here, but aren't you a little off topic. Manx, I think we deserve an explanation here." Ken interrupted before the two teenagers could start the yelling match he too could foresee. "Gomen Siberian. That is classified infor.." 'All right this was enough, fuck Weiß, I'm going to personally kill the next person who interrupts me.' Manx fumed to herself as someone else broke in to her sentence. "She cant, I will. Your right, you do deserve the answers, and that's what I'm best at. You don't mind right Aya?" she asked looking at the man whose lap she now was practically sitting in, while ignoring the smoke pouring out of Yohji's ears. "No." Aya sighed deeply as he returned the gaze. "Liar. You do to mind, you don't really want them to know. You like keeping your secrets just that, secret. I guess we're alike that way. But still you'll let me tell them just cause you think it's the right thing to do. You and that fucked up pride/humility thing. I'll never understand you. And that's saying something." She said, still gazing in to his eyes. Then as if seeing Yohji for the first time she stared intently at him, then winced slightly as if a hot poker just stabbed at her brain. She untangled herself from Aya and simply lay next to, not on top of, him. "Here goes." Sünde stated simply. Preparing to tell what she'd never thought she'd have to. She was about to blow the lid off of some of both Esstet's and Kritiker's most valued secrets, and unfortunately some of Aya's too. But as long as her own secrets were safe, she didn't give a flying rats ass.  
  
1. Love (Japanese) 2. Honey (German) 3. Babe (German) 4. Exclamation of sorts. Equivalent to 'my god' 5. Just showing love for another of our favorite animes. 6. Babe (German) 


	5. Behind the Scenes

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter Four --- Behind the Scenes  
  
(This chapter is for Schu-Schu Baby, thanks for coming back and for all your help you gave us in getting this chapter done! Danke!)  
  
'Mental thoughts'  
  
Everyone continued to sit around the cluttered mission room staring at Sünde, each to a different degree. Manx looked like she wished she could just kill the girl before she said whatever she was going to say. Persia was going to kill her for this anyway. Ken was staring at her with wide eyes, and a little drool forming at the side of his mouth. Omi looked at her with honest interest on his face. Apparently Kritiker was keeping secrets from everyone, not just him and his messed up 'family'. It intrigued him. Yohji's green eyes were completely gazed over with hate and jealousy. She was using his whole stash, which was a hell of a lot too, and was draped over his iceberg of a boyfriend. 'Aya wouldn't let me hang on him like that, this bitch is just street trash, how can she without getting a katana run through her.' He thought bitterly. Aya wasn't really looking at Sünde, but in front of him where most of her was draped. His face was more down cast then normal, amethyst eyes glazed over by a sadness rather then a cold hatred, and he was doing his best to hide it. Sünde herself just continued to sit, or more appropriately lay , on the couch, which was again technically Aya. It had been a good twenty minutes since she said she'd tell them most of what they wanted to know. She hadn't done more then work her way further in to a drug filled haze though. She hadn't said a single thing. Just staring off, as if contemplating how best to go about this. Yohji was ready to just jump up and smack her till she started talking, and maybe a little more just in spite. Sünde's eyes flashed to him and stayed there for a second as he glared back at her. 'Ready to burst in five, four, three..' she thought to herself. As her mental count hit one, Yohji started to stand. "Kritiker only told you about Esstet recently didn't they." She stated, more then questioned. And also forced Yohji to for go his 'beat the shit out of her' plan, for the moment anyway. "Yeah, just before that whole burning women cult thing or whatever." Ken told her, picking his tongue off the ground at moving his eyes up far enough to actually see her face. "Why?" "They knew about them since before that." Sünde continued to talk despite the worried death glare that streamed out of Manx. "What do you mean?" "What, when?" "How long?" "Since Schwartz first showed up?" all the members of Weiß, minus the ever silent leader, hurriedly asked her. All previous thoughts of hate, lust, jealousy, and confusion were thrown out the window by her one simple statement. She had known that would do the trick. That had been her goal all along. "They knew about Esstet since the day they first came in to existence." Now even Aya gawked at her, as much as the human iceberg could, with a look close to horror, but they were all still totally confused. "They were originally both part of the same organization." She finished for the moment. Turning to another joint, and letting that information sink in to them for a second. Final after the initial shock wore off, it was Omi who first spoke.  
"Manx, is that true?" he turned to the red haired woman in horror. The woman didn't meet his eyes, or any of their eyes. She was intensely fascinated by her hands that rested in her lap at the moment.  
"Manx?" Yohji questioned harshly, green eyes burning with a new fire now.  
"Yes." She sighed softly. The truth was out. 'That little bitch had blown the biggest kept secret of them all. Why couldn't I have just killed her?' Manx was beginning to wonder. It would have made her life easier, and she wouldn't have to worry about the ulcer she KNEW this was going to create. The looks and exclamations of horror and disgust and surprise instantly filled the walls of the mission room underneath the Koneko. Questions went flying every which way, one on top of another in a steady stream of hows, whos, and whats. Sünde began to lightly shake on the couch, as if she was slightly cold. Her breath then caught in her throat and she held her head in her hands.  
"ENOUGH!" Sünde's voice echoed through the place, instantly silencing everyone. She glared out a look of rage that even put Aya to shame. Then, slowly, she again laid back on to, a very startled and uncharacteristically concerned, Aya's lap and lit up a fresh joint, seriously wishing Yohji had a LOT stronger stuff, or at least a lot more of it. A needle sounded great right about then.  
"No questions." She said softly.  
"Nani?" Ken asked, not quite understanding what she meant.  
"NO questions. At all. None. No interruptions either. I'm gonna say what I'm going to and that's it. After I'm done I might be nice and clear up a couple of points or two, but NO questions. AT ALL. You start asking, I stop talking, that simple." She told them sternly. A voice that didn't match the attitude they had seen her display up till now. None of them trusted their voices to talk much at this point anyway, so they simply nodded their heads in agreement.  
"All right then. Here goes, again." She sighed and took another long hit. She knew exactly what they wanted to know, down to the last detail, but there was no way she was going to give all that up. So she would give them enough to shut them up, and stay out of her way. She again took her fair time in answering them though. She enjoyed pushing buttons, and this was doing it very well for her.  
"Damn it all already, just spit it out will ya?" Yohji snapped at the young woman. She looked blankly at him for a brief moment. Then in a near singsong voice, and an evil twitch of her lips she spoke.  
"Why Yohji, after tonight, you of all people should know, I swallow." And again she let her own silence raid in. And only her own. Ken was choking on his own spit, Omi was making pitiful squeaking noises and trying not to let his eyes pop ALL the way out of his head. Manx looked like she just might get a noise bleed. Yohji was a full shade or two redder then Aya's hair and trying to disappear in to the chair he was sitting in. Aya himself tensed up at her revelation, and let out what was meant to be a snort, but came out softer and more hurt. Sünde knew one thing for sure, Aya hated the idea of being cheated on. Being treated like he was second class to someone else, the same someone else who just happened to be his own significant other. It hurt him a lot, and that idea alone was why it had taken him so long to even start his relationship with Yohji. Kudo Yohji, the great romancer and king of one-night stands, had a bad reputation in Aya's head, and it wasn't an un-called for one either, Yohji did his best to live up to it. And it was the one thing that still caused a slight rift between the two of them once in a while. Sünde instantly felt sorry for even beginning to hurt Aya again and decided the best way to get his mind off of that, would be to finish saying what she was going to from the start of all this. Finally speaking the truth everyone had worked so hard to hide.  
"Esstet and Kritiker were the same place once. They both strived to 'make the world better'. The thing was that they decided to go about it two separate ways. So about 20 years back or so a certain faction of the main Esstet branch became large enough to break away completely. They became known as Kritiker. At that time Esstet easily saw what was going on, and who was still loyal to them. They were still bigger, and still in control. Kritiker was a mess, trying to build from nothing. Kritiker didn't, couldn't tell who was loyal to them or not. Esstet from the start of time used psychics to help them gain what they wanted. After the break, most of the psychics stayed loyal to Esstet. Kind of like a 'If you can see the future, you wont fuck it up.' type of thing was used to blackmail them to stay. If any went along with Kritiker, they were young and inexperienced. They were too fresh and couldn't be much help. But Esstet doesn't do anything halfway. In order to keep Kritiker under wraps, Esstet placed several of their best field agents undercover within their ranks. A few psychics, but for safety and cover reasons, they made most of the agents normal humans to try and stay concealed. Esstet held the thought that within a year Kritiker could be taken down. That wasn't the case though. Instead Kritiker grew incredibly strong. Strong enough to begin to rival Esstet themselves. And they did it in a very short period of time considering everything. Then, seven or so years ago Esstet realized that they needed to keep a better watch on Kritiker. Most of there agents had been found out. So they decided to send in a last resort. They knew that Kritiker would have its suspicions, but then again if they played there cards right, the new agent would be fine. And their 'right card' could help take Kritiker down. Their 'right card' was me. I was taken out of the outfit I was working with in Esstet and placed in to the ranks of Kritiker. It wasn't that they trusted me, because really they didn't. They never let me work alone, always having at least one Kritiker agent with me. But they couldn't prove anything. I was trained and I KNEW how to keep my cover. They couldn't get rid of me." She paused there a second to grab yet another joint, it was the last one too, and to give everyone time to digest what she'd told them so far.  
"I could have earned more of their trust though, but as it was whenever I went on a mission, I would get the target, and normally several Kritiker agents would 'accidentally' die. They knew it had to be me, but couldn't directly tie it to me. I figured I didn't need anymore of their trust. I was doing fine as it was. I just had to deal with always being teamed up with one group or another. And that was fine with me.  
Then 4 years after I first went undercover, I decided I wanted out. I simply got up and dropped the facade and walked out of Kritiker and back to Esstet. Only by then I didn't really feel like working with them either, things had changed and I didn't WANT to go back to my original team, which had been my first thought. And if I didn't go back to them, I felt there was no point in being in Esstet either. So I left altogether altogether as well." Sünde stopped and waited. The room still sat perfectly still for a second before they realized she wasn't going to say anymore.  
"Umm.." Omi started to try and ask, but then remembered Sünde's ban on questions.  
"What's that got to do with now?" Sünde said for him. "After the incident involving the Esstet elders, mainly you guys killing them all off, both of the organizations are in a lot of turmoil. Everything is up in the air and no one quite knows where it's heading. So because of that, it's a mad search for any and all members they can find. I happen to be one. Despite the fact they lost a lot of people to me, I still did a kick assed job at what I was supposed to do." Her voice had a harsher tone setting in to it. The drugs were wearing off way to quickly, things would get bad soon, and she hoped she could get them to shut up before that.  
"I still don't get it. Why us then, why Weiß?" Ken asked. To confused to even remember the 'no questions' thing. He was met with a glare of death that seriously could have given him a heart attack. The odd thing was that for once it wasn't Aya who was giving it to them, it was Sünde.  
"Because of me." Everyone's jaw was now politely resting on the floor as they all turned to look at Aya, and tried to comprehend his words. Even Sünde looked at him slightly shocked. Even she hadn't expected him to speak up, and that was saying a hell of a lot. Sensing the tension of the room, and bewilderment over Aya's words she decided wisely that she should be the one to clear up the confusion, and save Aya from any further talking on his part. Though it didn't look like he was planning on saying anything else anyway.  
"Yeah, that's about right." She said simply, and proceeded to snuggle closer to the man she was already draped on. Glad to see that her earlier comment about Yohji had slipped from his mind.  
"Just why in the FUCK is that?!" Yohji growled out at the two of them. 'Before it had been bad enough with the little tramp hanging all over MY boyfriend, but now to hear him defend the girl, and say HE was the reason she was here to begin with.' It was too much for him to take.  
"During my time undercover the last Kritiker group I worked with before I returned to Esstet was the Crashers." Sünde told him in a simplicity tone that made everything she said sound mundane, it was also a tone Yohji was beginning to hate. Everyone continued to just stare at her as if they were waiting for her to say more. She looked back at them blankly, she had said all she was planning to for the moment, nearly forever too. Finally it was Omi who made the connection in his head.  
"Crashers? Wasn't that the name of the group you were part of Aya- kun, before you came to Weiß?" he asked the stoic leader of their small group. He looked back at Omi with the same blank look as Sünde had, and a deadly glare added to it.  
"Yes. It was." Manx spoke up at last. "Kritiker thought that since Himura, excuse me, Sünde, already had past connections with him it would be best for her to be brought in to the same group as him. That way he would already know the cautions that came along with her, and hopefully she would feel comfortable enough with Abyssinian to remain here until we could reassign her to a more appropriate post." Manx then stopped and looked at Yohji as if to dare him to contradict her words. He wisely seen the look she was giving him and didn't say anything.  
"Not gonna happen, haní. I don't belong here, or to Kritiker. Never have never will." Sünde replied in a tone of voice that was quickly changing from her drugged induced playful one to one that more resembled Aya on a good day. If he had any of those.  
"Your sitting here in the middle of a Kritiker base, surrounded by four agents of one of their top lethal units, and saying your giving your loyalties to Esstet instead. How stupid are you?" Ken asked the girl, baffled at why she would do something like that. 'Its as if she has a death wish or something.' he thought.  
"Iie. I never said I was going back to Esstet. I'm not. Esstet dose not hold my loyalties any more then Kritiker does." Sünde's voice was getting colder and colder with each word she said. The drugs were fading off too fast, and her head was beginning to hurt with more then just a hangover. She was not in the happiest of moods, and doing her best to make damn sure the entire fucking room knew that.  
"Then just where do your fucking 'loyalties' lie?" Yohji questioned sternly. He did NOT like this little whore, and he was making sure the entire room knew that as well.  
"With Schwarz. They always have and always will. That simple." She responded. Everyone sat in a slightly stunned haze as that information sunk in. A brief flash of pain could be seen to pass across the brick wall that made up Aya's facial expression before he settled back in to ice cube mode. Omi's mind went on an overloaded surge now. He had wondered from the first moment that Manx said it was Schwarz looking for her instead of some basic recovery squad. Now that the girl, though really he couldn't call her that, technically she was older then him, blatantly said that her only loyalties laid with Schwarz, he had even more questions about just who and what she really was. He didn't have much of a chance to contemplate his thought as Ken snapped out of the daze he was in and continued to interrogate her.  
"Well then does the same thing go for that other girl? Are her loyalties there as well? Is that why she already went back there?" He droned off in a whirlwind of thoughts as he motioned the folder lying open on the table in front of the couch. The green haired girls photo stared back from it.  
"Iie. She doesn't swear her loyalties to things like that. Not places, not things, only people. Person to person connections. She would only swear her loyalties to people. And then she only truly swore them twice." Sünde polity explained, giving them more information then she felt they deserved, but at the same time hoping it would shut them up quicker. Her head was beginning to actually burn it hurt so much.  
"Then who did she swear them to to make her go back to Schwarz?" apparently Omi was oblivious to her motives as he continued the painful questions.  
"Simple answer, me. She knew I'd be coming back, so she went ahead. She always trying to beat me to the punch line. Normally, it doesn't work." She knew the real reason that Tinkerbell had gone back, but was defiantly not about to try and explain all of that to them. She wouldn't, couldn't, even if she wanted to. Truth was, saying Tinkerbell went back for her was the simple answer to all of it. Mentally she added to herself, 'And for the love of shinigami I hope she fucking keeps that damn promise.'  
"Well, now I think." and again, for what was becoming a regular habit of the night, Manx was cut off. She was getting very used to it, though it still made her anger flare up even more at the girl.  
"Iie. No more anything. I told you everything I'm going to say. I told you more then you deserve to know. Nothing else. I will be returning to Schwarz. It's that simple. I can give you the assurance that I'm not about to rat any of your dirty little secrets out to them. Just like I won't rat theirs to you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need some sleep. It's been a LONG night." And with that Sünde stood up from the couch, and Aya whom she had been using as a couch, and walked up the stairs to the flower shop above them, presumably leaving. Not bothering to ask for directions, much less permission, to do so. The rest of the room was left in slight shock after her last confession. It took a minute or two for everything to sink in to the five people still in the room.  
"I do believe that this mission was a complete failure. What now Manx?" Ken asked as he too stood up and stretched out the cricks in his body. The lose jersey he wore slid up his tanned abs slightly, but not enough to actually consider it a show of skin, before he relaxed again.  
"Now, I don't know. Make sure you stay on your toes now that she's back in play again. It has the distinct possibility of getting very dangerous very fast. Other then that, I can't issue a kill warrant out on her. Despite everything, she could still be useful in the future. I'll leave it at that. Goodnight gentlemen, and again watch your backs around her. Especially you Abyssinian." Manx spoke as she got up and headed for the door. Her work was done for the night. It had been a complete failure just as Ken said, and there was nothing more that she could do except to go back to Persia with her tail between her legs and pray that he understood.  
"Goodnight." Aya responded as Manx left. Then he too got up and headed for the stairs without a second look at anyone else. If he guessed right, he would have his hands full once he got to his room anyway. He didn't want to stick around and try to explain anything else to the rest of Weiß, especially not Yohji. The rest of the men exchanged worried looks and slight shoulder shrugs. Finally after a few more minutes Ken and Omi decided that it had been a long night for them as well and they also turned to head up to their rooms and catch a few hours of sleep before morning. Yohji stayed in the basement fuming and smoking nearly two entire packs of cigarettes. Fuming about the little tramp, his boyfriends odd behavior, the fact that his stash was now gone, and the fact that there wasn't nearly enough alcohol down there to get himself good and wasted to name a few. 'And I still have the smell of fish about me.' It had been a long night for him as well, but it was still just the beginning.  
  
TBC... 


	6. A Night Of Memories

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter Five --- A Night of Memories  
  
'Mental thoughts'  
  
Aya slowly climbed the stairs to the main apartment and headed for his room. All of the other Weiß members had made the assumption that Sünde had left. Forever walking out of their lives, unless she crossed them in a mission. He knew differently, her forevers didn't really seem to last as long as they were supposed to. 'And besides, there was no way she would do that to me, not again at least.' He thought. As he opened his door, his guesses were confirmed. He wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see the girl that had caused so much up roar in the last several hours sprawled out on the floor next to his bed. Her shirt and pants were tossed in a corner by the door, and as far as he could tell the only thing covering her was the blanket she must have taken from the hall closet. Her head was cradled on Aya's pillow. He just stood there and stared at her for a moment. Surprised, no, but still slightly shocked. Not at her there, but at how far she had fallen since they last had met. This wasn't the girl he had known. But then again, she had also been undercover then. So maybe it was. He just didn't want to admit that to himself. It had hurt when he found out she was an Esstet member. Wondering just how much she had been 'playing her part' and how much was real. Now though, he pushed those thoughts from his head. Just at peace with seeing her again. He quietly shut the door behind him, and cursed for not having locks. At the noise, as subtle as it was, she stirred. A delightful purr coming from her as she stretched her arms out above her.  
"Took ya long enough." She told him as her eyes watched every muscle in his body as he moved over to his clothes hamper and began to undress. A light that even she herself thought had been lost came to life inside of her as she watched piece after piece of creamy alabaster skin come in to view. In the darkness of the room, lit only by glimpses of the moon drifting though the window, his skin seemed to glow in a comparison to his bright hair. Finally, when clad in only black silk boxers, a luxury Yohji had influenced him with she knew, he crawled up in to his bed. She continued to lay there on the ground for a moment, thinking that maybe he wasn't even going to acknowledge her, when a pair of amethyst eyes suddenly dropped over his bed to stare at her. She let her mouth crack in to a seductive grin, phony as hell and they both knew it, but still it was the thought.  
"Yes?" she purred at him with a voice that had only come from being on the streets too long.  
"You still sleep on the floor." He stated, not asked, in the tone that one had to become used to when dealing with Aya.  
"You know me, I won't sleep in a bed alone." She told him beginning to drop her mask, it was becoming much to hard to keep on now, and letting him see more of the person she had become since they last had been this close. He nodded slowly and sat back on the bed, removing his face from her view, but dropping a hand down to her instead. She allowed herself the simple luxury of lightly holding it with her own for a second. As she attempted to pull back from his hold though, the grip he had on her strengthened and with all the force he could he yanked her small light form up on to the bed, and partially on to him, in one liquid motion. She let a slightly pained, but not as startled as one would expect, gasp. His lips twitched in to what he was trying to make a smile. In that effort she could tell that he too had changed. And like her, not all for the better.  
"There. Now your not alone." He told her plainly. She looked down at him from where she was laying on his chest. Violet met amethyst and pain of both their lives flooded one another. When they last left, many of the things that they both wished had happened, hadn't. Aya had been 19, which was more then prime in all males minds, but Sünde had barely been 15. They had allowed themselves just the joy of being near one another. And sleeping together back then was just that, sleeping. Now as one pair of heated eyes met another they knew that this was their chance to finish what they both had never wanted to lose, but had.  
"Off the floor, yes, but I must say, it was more comfortable down there." She told him, laying her head in the crock of his neck as one hand came to play with his nipple, in what almost seemed an unconscious gesture. She received a small hiss of pleasure for her effort.  
"Whys that?" he whispered, groaning against her onslaught, as lips moved in the same care free manor to take in the nipple her hand didn't have occupied.  
"Cause now, your poking me." She said with what might have been a giggle as her other hand wormed between them to gently fondle his silk clad erection.  
"Well, lets just see what we can do about that." He told her playfully, or at least as playful as Aya got, as he rolled them over so that she was under him as their mouths met in a brutal kiss, shadowing what the rest of the night was to hold for them. 


	7. The Morning After

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter Six --- The Morning After  
  
'Mental thoughts'  
  
Sünde slowly tried to stretch. Her arm was pinned behind her and it hurt. When she pulled it back she realized why, it had been wrapped around the figure behind her. A figure which stirred at her movements.  
"Aya, due me a favor, rub my shoulder it's killing me." She told him sleepily. His arms slowly unwound from around her and began to do as she had just asked. It was about then that her mind caught up with her situation. She had to get out of there and not a moment to soon. She didn't want to even begin to try and go on like this. This wasn't her, she was Schwarz, no matter what she always would be. But as she felt Aya's hands gently rubbing away the tenseness from her muscles she realized getting up and saying 'Thanks for the fuck, I'm outta here.' would all but destroy the man, and she had done enough of that in the past. She never wanted that to happen again. She had left last time to try and make sure it hadn't, but the result was opposite of her goals. Her head was killing her, already running through more then enough ways out of here, and about a thousand other things as well. The main thing was, he needed to go back asleep before she could leave. It would still hurt him, but it wouldn't crush him the way just up and leaving at this exact second would. And if several years on the streets had taught her anything, they had taught her a very good way to get a guy asleep.  
"That's nice." She mumbled gently as she rolled over to face Aya. She moved so quick that his hands hadn't left her back yet, so she took advantage of it. Quickly he found himself lying under her, while still cradling their bodies together. A small look of surprise felted across his face at the rapid change in positions. With a small rock of her naked body against his and a forceful crushing of her lips to his, that look was immediately changed to pure pleasure.  
"But I can make it nicer." She whispered in to his ear, flowed by a playful nip to it as her hands found his nipples and gave them a small tug. His eyes rolled back in to his head and a small moan slipped passed his open lips.  
"That's what I thought." Sünde whispered again as her teeth moved to replace her one hand on his chest, and the hand that had been there moved down between there pressed bodies and to his growing erection. Slow strokes added too the careful licks and playful bites to his tender nipples had him more then ready in mere seconds, despite all the hours they had spent doing much the same the night before. Without any warning, Sünde's body replaced her hand, and as her velvet warmth enclosed Aya's throbbing erection he let out a very uncharacteristic moan. Which was enough to make her almost let out an equally uncharacteristic laugh. It wasn't long and she could feel by his increased trusts that he was almost there. It wasn't that he didn't have stamina, it was just that she was wearing him out after a whole night, and now a morning of the same. She increased her rocking to a near fevered pace as she road him. Making him groan and let out noises that only before Yohji had ever heard, and then not maybe even him. As he released his essence deep inside of her and fell back against the bed panting, she pulled off of him and laid down carefully next to him.  
"I'm sorry for this, I do love you, but I have to do this." She whispered to him with a gentle kiss as she waited for him to fall asleep. It wasn't long and his breathing evened out and slowed, showing that he was again asleep. She began to slowly rise from the bed, when the door opened.  
"Hey, Aya I..." nothing more then that beginning of a hushed whisper passed Yohji's lips as his eyes looked inside. On the bed before him, clearly visible by the rising sunlight that streamed in the window, was his boyfriend. Sleeping, sated, covered only in a sheet and Sünde. A Sünde who was sitting up, letting the sheet slip from her naked body to the bed. To say Yohji was in shock was an understatement. Sünde looked at him, but knew that his level of speechlessness would make it impossible to wake Aya up. She lazily stretched, not ashamed of the utter lack of modesty she was showing as now only half a thigh was covered with the sheet.  
"I wouldn't wake him, we had a long night, and morning." she whispered out in a hardened tone as eyes that had appeared to darken since the night before pierced through Yohji. He just stood there in shock as the girl stood then and grabbed the blanket that had on the floor, where she originally intended to sleep. She wrapped it around herself and picked up her discarded clothing before pushing past Yohji and out in to the hall towards the bathroom. Yohji just continued to stare at the sleeping form of Aya, struggling to breath, before turning slowly and shutting the door. He headed back for his room, tears began to form in his eyes from the force of the betrayal he felt, but before they were even shed they changed in to anger. Not at Aya, but at the girl. He knew her charms too well from the night before. This had been her doing, and he hated her for it. He slammed his door with force enough to shake the entire building.  
  
Sünde looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, fighting back the urge to hit it and shatter the glass. Wet hair fell forward in her face and dark circles fell forever beneath her eyes. Her head hurt from more then one reason, and she needed a fix so bad it was hard to breath. She turned away from the mirror before she did something stupid and looked around. All she had were her clothes from the night before, which she was not about to put back on now that she was clean, and the blanket from Aya's room. She didn't frown at them as much as she glared at them. She needed clothes so that she could get the hell out of there, and to where a needle was waiting.  
"Aya, no, Yohji, no, Ken, no, Omi...AHH!" she gasped out as she hit her knees holding her head. The possibilities for clothes were pathetic, the pain was unbearable, and the urge to puck the stomach acid inside of her was growing.  
"Fuck!" she cursed out as she struggled to her feet. Omi was the only one who's clothes she'd have a chance of fitting in. He was already in the shop setting up she knew. She threw her own clothes in to the trash and carefully made it to Omi's room and grabbed a pair of oversized shorts and a tank top. The shorts hung nearly to her feet. He was taller then her and even with the belt at its tightest they were still falling down. The tank hung down far enough to cover that fact though. Its neckline dipped low enough to nearly revile her chest, but billowed around her frame so much you couldn't really tell. 'It'll work for now.' she mused to her self as she headed to the kitchen. She couldn't get a needle here, but she was at least going to get a cup of coffee before she took off. It wouldn't help her problems, but it'd at least wake her up a little more so that she could deal with them better.  
  
Omi headed up the stairs from the shop and in to the apartment. He wondered where Aya-kun was. He was scheduled to open with him, and the man was NEVER late. In fact, Aya was normally up before Omi. As he neared the kitchen he could smell smoke. Not the kind of smoke that came around when Ken-kun was attempting to cook, but the kind that told him Yohji-kun was sneaking a cigarette outside of his room. Which was the only place where he was allowed to smoke, besides the mission room.  
"Yohji-kun, you know better..." Omi started to lecture as he walked in, before he realized he had been mistaken. Draped over the counter, wearing his too large clothing, with a cigarette hanging from her mouth and cup of coffee in her hand was Sünde. He looked at her puzzled. Wondering what she was still doing here, and in his clothes, smoking Yohji's cigarettes.  
"Sorry honí. Only clothes that'd fit me. And nicotine's the only fix I could get at the moment." she told him never looking up from the counter top that seemed to hold her attention so well.  
"Oh." was all Omi could manage to say as he walked over and pulled a mug from the cupboard with the thought that a little caffeine might help him make sense of all this.  
"Don't. Its latté, and strong, you wont like it. Hot chocolates on the stove for you. But tell Yohji to help himself to the latté, I owe him anyway." she spoke as she drained her cup and sat it in the sink. Omi just froze where he was, in the middle of reaching for the coffee pot.  
"You'll get the clothes back eventually, promise." she told him as she headed down the stairs and out the door presumably for real this time. Omi wondered about the tone her voice had held. It had been colder then the night before, and with a rougher edge. He shrugged it off though, and reached for the coffee pot anyway. 'Who is she to tell me what I'll like and not...'  
"Eww!" he cried out as he tasted the brew she had made. He dumped out the rest of the cup he'd poured and went for the hot chocolate instead. Seriously hoping he would never have to she the girl again. It wasn't that he didn't like her, she just put him on edge. 


	8. A New Type Of Jepardy

SECOND STRINGERS  
  
Chapter 7 --- A New Type of Jepardy  
  
//mental talking// 'mental thoughts'  
  
There was a sharp knock on the door to the mansion that Schwarz called home. It was one that Takatori had put them up in. Since his demise Nagi had changed the deed to make it theirs. It worked for what they needed. Plenty of bedrooms, a large office for Crawford, and cells in the basement to house Farfarello. All in all it was a nice place to live. Upon hearing the knock, Nagi and Schuldich exchanged glances. Crawford hadn't said anything about anyone coming by, and being that Crawford was a precog, he knew things like that. Right now Crawford was trying to clean up the mess Tinkerbell and Farfie had made in the kitchen with the blender. Now the two of them were both down in the cells, playing jacks of all things. 'Oh well, the place needed another lunatic would enjoyed licking knives, yeah, RIGHT!' Nagi thought as he followed Schu to the door. Schuldich pulled open the door and nearly fell back over on to his ass from the sight, and he was as flamingly gay as they come. Nagi, well he nearly sprouted a nosebleed, among other things. A young girl stood on the other side of the door. She leaned against, well actually was draped over, the doorframe with one arm, her legs crossed at the knee and the other arm lazily was placed on her hip. The tight sharpie red pants she wore were so tight on her skin, it looked as if they were painted on. They showed off every curve and every line perfectly well. They fell from low, very low on her hips to her feet and at the last second opened up enough for her to be able to pull on the high heeled boots she was wearing. The boots were of the darkest black leather anyone could ever have saw. They gave at least three inches to her height, yet she was still short. Without the boots she wouldn't even be as tall as Nagi. The shirt, though it covered so little it barely earned the right to be called that, was a sharp yellow. Not the soft pale colors that Crawford wore at times, but a sun shine color. Neon and flashing, it would have blinded them if direct light hit it. It looped up around her neck and had one thin strip of cloth that tied behind her back. It was low cut, and high riding, and also beyond skintight. The outfit was made to get her noticed, get attention, and get people to look at her. And at the same time there was just as much skin showing as there was clothing. And all the skin that was reveled had a beautiful darkness too it, not of nationality, but just of the most perfect tan ever. And it served to compliment the dark shade of violet that was her hair. It hung loosely about her face in small tuffs, pin straight and almost unruly, if it hadn't been for the way she managed to make it look perfect. Her make up was set to show off every tiny feature in the face that most people didn't know existed. She peered up at Schuldich through half lidded eyes. Eyes that shown a magnificent violet. Dark and hard, yet willing to be so much more. One single nearly smoked cigarette was in her lips. She never said a word but instead pushed past the speechless German and in to the living room, swaying her hips in rhythm to the rising pace of the heart rates in the room, grinding the cigarette out on the steps. She then turned and looked at the room. Nagi and Schu had come to stand together by the coffee table staring in spectacle at her. No one knew where this mansion was. And if someone just waltzed right in here, well, it didn't bode to well for them. And Crawford would have their necks for LETTING her in, in the first place. "I, I, think you have the wrong place. We already have one whore..umpf." Nagi's protest was cut off by a dirty look and elbow to the ribs from Schu. She just placed a smirk on her lips, well it was supposed to be a smirk, it didn't look right on her face though, and sighed, looking past them to a folder on the coffee table. "No, I got the right place. You're looking at my profile after all." Her voice came out in a delicious twirl of the Japanese language, proving she was not only an expert at using it and manipulating it, but probably a natural born speaker. Not many people outside of true Japanese could master the language. Farfarello never tried, he didn't need to, he got by with licking knives and scaring priests. Schu knew the language and could use it, but still he was horrible at best. Crawford was the best, besides Nagi who was native, he had learned perfect German, and French, and he knew Japanese very well, but even Crawford still said Mister. This girl though, Nagi couldn't pick up any of those unusual characteristics about her speaking. Though she didn't look exactly what you'd expect a Japanese to, it was close. Nagi stared at the girl for a moment more then flashed his eyes back to the folder. It hadn't said much, only she worked for Esstet from the age of 4 to 15. A large part of that time was spent undercover as part of Kritiker. Then she disappeared a few years back. The only photos they had of her were black and white ID pictures. One from when she was first brought in to Esstet and another a few years later, right before she went undercover. And the only name given for her had been her codename, Jepardy. And unlike most codenames, where they'd give you an idea of the person's powers, hers didn't. Nothing else at all. No real name, or background, no idea of where she came from, or what her power was. Nothing. And now out of the blue here she was in all her glory. 'Something doesn't make sense, how did she know that we were looking for her, much less where to find us? And why come back? Okay its not just something, a whole hell of a lot doesn't make sense.' Nagi thought to himself as his eyes took in the person before him. "Ah, you're here. Earlier then I expected though." Crawford said as he entered the room from the kitchen. He wasn't shocked at all to find a hooker standing in his living room. Sometimes it seemed HE was the one with the repressed emotions. The most he did was flash a disapproving look at her and her ensemble. When his eyes reached her, almost, smirking face, he nearly scowled at her. And her facial expressions didn't offer much better for him. "Now, for introductions." "No way." She promptly cut him off. He wanted this cutthroat, and she wasn't about to let him have his way. She was going to drag it out as much as she could, if for nothing else then to piss him off. And she tried for that in every way she could. Stretching in front of him, literally inches from touching him, in a way that managed to drop the pants lower and raise the shirt higher. She was blatantly showing herself off to Crawford. Even Schu never went to extremes like this, but she was, and she'd just met the man. "Shower first, then nap, then I'll introduce myself in my own time." Came a sleepy, yet damn sexy response from her, and at the same time she stroked his check with her hands and pouted. Crawford's eyes flared with anger at already being disobeyed. "No. Now." He was pissed off. More then Schu even got him after trying for hours, and she'd only been at it 5 minutes. "Okay, okay, just a shower then Braddy. But I'm at least getting that." And before he could introduce her, push the argument further, stop her, or even kill her for not only saying Brad as Schu sometimes could, but Braddy, she was up the stairs and all three of them could hear the water running. Crawford glared at where she had disappeared and whirled around on his heels back to the kitchen. Okay, pissed didn't even begin to cover this. That man would kill the first thing that came with in five feet of him, given the chance something in the house was stupid enough to come that close to a pissed Crawford. Schu just stared after him, and Nagi stared after the girl. 'This was getting to be one VERY interesting couple of days indeed.' Nagi thought to himself. //And even without my help liebe.// Schu purred back in to his mind.  
***** It wasn't until a good twenty minutes later that the girl stumbled down the steps wearing a battered gray tank top and a pair of babies breath blue boxers, with yellow cartoon duckies dancing on them. They were slowly sliding lower and lower on her hips to revile more and more skin, but it seemed okay with her. Her wet hair was pulled back in to a lumpy ponytail. And water still dripped on to her back where it lay. Without her makeup, the darkness under her eyes was evident, not just from a lack of sleep either. Schu could tell the minute she hit the landing, not only was she a trick, which had been fairly evident before, but also a junkie in need of a fix. He'd been there himself, he knew the signs and he knew what this poor kid would be put through as soon as Esstet found out. And he knew, again from personal experience, it wasn't fun. It did give a slight insight in to her, and her powers though. If drugs were in her life, it was a 99% chance her power dealt with some sort of mental abilities. It was too easy for powers like that to get out of hand, and the quickest way to shut them up was drugs. Crawford stood from the couch where he had been pretending to work on a file, in truth he had been sulking. Schu followed suit and stood with him, barely letting his full attention wander to the girl, he had liked that show that was on the TV, old American reruns of M.A.S.H. were the best,(*1) even if the dubbing was worse then Godzilla movies. What finally drew his attention off the TV was Nagi. Nagi was blushing feverishly hard and not looking at the girl at all as he came to stand by the others. She apparently picked up on this right away as she finished the walk down the short hall and in to the living room. She also apparently knew why he was blushing. "Gomen nasai. Yours were the only clothes even to come close to fitting me in this place. All mine are for the street or the clubs, and those ain't very comfy. I mean I couldn't fit in too anyone else clothes. Even these are too big, haní(*2)." The girl told Nagi as she motioned the fact that the boxers were falling off if it wasn't for her hand on her hip holding them in place. Schu turned and smirked at Nagi. "Dancing duckies. Cute." His laughing was barely contained. Nagi would have liked to dodge out the door, and even started to, with Schu almost casually following him, laughing, but Farfarello picked that moment to come in to the room, blocking off his escape. "Yes. Now that everyone is here, lets begin." Crawford snapped at his followers to stop the impending fight he saw as a possibility. He wanted this out of the way, fast, he knew what was coming, even without his precognitive abilities, and he wanted that done quickly too. The girl shot him a dirty look, as if there was a reason why he should be handling this different in her mind. Schu tried to pick that up from her thoughts, knowing that even Crawford had surface thoughts he could always pick up on. And again, he was shocked to the core of his existence. He couldn't get anything from her, at all. But even the brick wall that he encountered when trying to read Tinkerbell's thoughts was better then this. It was like a black hole that sucked in everything around it and left an empty spot on the planet. Not even could he pick up on the fact it was another shielded mind, it was nothing but an abyss. She shot him a look, almost as if to say, 'don't try that again', and then turned back to Crawford. "Allow me Braddy. You'd get my name wrong anyway." She told him as she snaked around behind him so that she now stood facing them in a row in front of her. Crawford's eyes flashed again. At the arm around his waist, the use of the name, being told he'd be wrong, or again being disobeyed, who knew? "Well, Farfie-koi, long time no see, just as crazy as last time though. As always, not a really pleasure but oh well, I'll make do. Give you a knife and don't mention god, and we'll both be fine." The tall white haired Irishman simply let out a half growl and smirked his lip up at the corners. That was his way of saying 'hi' back. He remembered her, but didn't really care about her, so this was pointless to him.  
"Naoe Nagi, mind if I call you Nags, you do, I don't care, I will anyway. The resident telekinetic. Has no emotions, or just likes to think he doesn't. When it comes down to it, you do, and when they get out of control, holy shit watch out. You're a live wire inside, and I like that." Nagi gapped openly at her. She was right and he didn't like that. "Braddy, well who cares about you, I don't, oh wait, the German over there does, but I haven't gotten to him yet." She said with a twitch of her head to Schu. Then she turned to face him.  
"And you," she then broke out laughing, well a cute little giggle that was trying to be a laugh at least, "I think, I KNOW, I'm going to like you. Not only do we share a similar past, but" she paused again for laughing, "Schuldich, I'd like to introduce myself," she held out her hand, and as he leaned in to take it she finished, "The names Sünde." At that Schu laughed as well. They were a lot like, even without him knowing her past, with a name like that, he could only guess. "I think I'll like you too, Sünde." He told her. His own lips curling up at the ends as he said her name in a perfect purr of the word. It fell naturally from his lips. "I know you will." Then she turned back to Crawford. A Crawford who was steaming mad and had nearly lunged at her neck upon the act of saying her name. Apparently she hadn't said what he expected her to. And he didn't like it. "There Braddy, I know you don't need me for the rest. I'm gong to get some sleep. I had a long night." She again wound her hand around him again on her way back up the stairs. If looks could kill, the rest of Schwarz wouldn't have to worry about learning about a new member, only where they'd want to be buried. In two bounds and with enough speed to almost make Schuldich himself jealous Crawford was at the top of the stairs facing her.  
  
"Just what do you think your doing?" he growled at her, it was less of a question and more of a simple growl of annoyance. It didn't faze the girl at all. "I think I'm getting some sleep. I told you, I had a long night, a long morning, and I'm planning on having another long night to hopefully get rid of this shinigami damn headache I have haní." She told him as a mother would explain to a 3-year-old why they can't have a cookie before supper. It looked ridiculous. The girl was at lest a foot, if not shorter, then Crawford, and had to be at least ten years younger. On top of that the leader of Schwarz had a look on his face like he was ready to kill her, and she was merely pouting at him. Then, more to break his concentration then anything else, she pushed up against him and wound her hands behind his neck and played with the tail ends of his hair. "K.." was the only sound he got out before she placed one of her fingers over his lips to silence him. "See, I told you, you would use the wrong name. It's Sünde now. Remember that, cause I think," she paused for a mere second as it looked like she winced with some unseen pain. "I know, I can make it so that you never knew me by any name but Sünde. And you don't want that, I know." And then, leaning in even closer to him, and brushing her lips against his ear to be sure that he was the only one who could hear her words said one last thing. "It's been six years Braddy, and you don't even give me a second glance as I walk through those doors. Precog or not, you should have known better then to do that. Goodnight Braddy." She unwound herself from him then and walked in to the room that had been set up for her, with no one ever telling her which one it was, but then again they never told her where the shower was either and she found that just fine. In her walk away she managed to add a swagger to her hips that could be nothing short of complete eye candy motion. It had Nagi's, and even Schu's, undivided attention. It seemed to just piss Crawford off even more though. The brief look of inner pain that swept through his eyes at her last words, now was completely gone. He turned back around to the others, anger flashing behind his eyes. "And just what are you looking at?" he snarled at them, but focused his gaze on Nagi. "I, ah, well," Nagi tried to formulate words that would save him a harsh lesson from Crawford, and failed. Luckily for him, Schu came to the rescue. "Give the kid a break, he's just enjoying the view of one fine ass. Her picture really doesn't do her justice." He purred as he motioned the file. "I though you were homosexual, Schuldich." Crawford snapped at him. "I am, but when it looks THAT good, it don't matter who or what you are, you're going to look, and like." Crawford managed to turn red with anger at those words. It was quickly becoming evident that this was a touchy case to him. The only thing that saved a massive blow up on everyone's part finally, was Farfarello. He had stayed to the back ever since it all had begun, and now decided to part for good. "I'm going back down to Tinkerbell. I already know how most of this goes." He said as he retreated back down to the cells. Those words caught Nagi's attention. "Yeah, she said she already knew him. How?" he asked. "And she obviously already knows you too, Braddy." Schu purred at the older man. He was received with a swift punch to the stomach that nearly made him collapse completely. At what he did receive he could already imagine a very black and blue couple of ribs. "You EVER call me that again, you WILL die. That understood." "..yeah.." came the muffled reply as he tried to straighten himself out. "K.., Sünde, has been a part of Esstet for as long as I have. We were both on the team that first assembled Schwarz. Soon after Farfarello was brought on, she was removed from Schwarz and placed undercover. That is how she knows both Farfarello and myself." He told them as flat as he could, yet there was something just hiding behind his voice. "And her power?" Nagi asked. New people would make it interesting, sure, but if at the same time they were useless, then they did no good. And so far to him, Tinkerbell didn't seem that useful, he hoped that this girl would be. "Answers." Was all Brad said. Apparently he thought that was enough for them. "Answers to what?" Schuldich's nasal voice was slowly returning to normal. "Everything. Jepardy possess the answer to any and every question that ever has, or might be asked. It is a tremendous gift, yet at times it makes her quite unstable." He glanced at the two members. They were staring back at him as if he'd just spoken in Greek. He sighed bitterly and turned to head in to his office. He could foresee that Esstet had sent him the next phase of this assignment, and he wished to get working on it so that all of this could be done as quickly as possible. "That is all for now." He said over his shoulder as if he was dismissing the other two. He really wasn't for they could do whatever they liked as long as there was no mission, but it was the idea that he had that power that made him to do it. To Bradley Crawford everything was always about power.  
***** Crawford sighed as he shut down the laptop. Not the greatest way to start things. There wasn't much he could do about it though. At least that's what he was going to keep telling himself. That way he wouldn't feel so much like shit when it came down to it. Not that he would ever admit those feelings to anyone to begin with, but still, he didn't want to feel it. //Schuldich. Get in here. I have an assignment for you.// he sent out on the lines of mental telepathy that always seemed to be open between him and the German.  
//Does it involve me, you, and those silk sheets on your bed?// the mental reply came back. Crawford cringed at the thought, and the pictures that Schuldich had sent along to accompany it. Crawford was straight, again, something he just had to keep telling himself to make sure that he believed it.  
//NO.// was the firm answer.  
"Then I don't think I want it." Schu said as he walked in to the room and draped himself over the edge of Crawford's desk, gazing sensually in to the eyes of the man he loved, and who refused to show any of that love back.  
"Get off my desk."  
"I'd rather get off on you." The only thing that made him miss another gut punch was his lightning fast reflexes, and then it was still close. "What's this about? I got things to do."  
"No, you don't. Its pointless to lie about the future to a precognitive Schuldich, I thought you would have learned that by now." Crawford looked at the man with blatant detest in his eyes. Nothing new, Schu should have been used to it by now, but it still hurt. "It has come to the attention of Esstet that, Sünde, did not come directly back to us."  
"I don't get it, so what?" Schuldich declared as he flopped in to a chair on the other side of the desk. Trying to look as tempting as possible, it never worked though.  
"She originally broke contact with us while heavily undercover with Kritiker, as part of the Crashers to be precise. When she first become aware of us trying to get a hold of her again, she returned to Kritiker first, and one of her old 'teammates' from the Crashers, Fujimyia Ran, also know as Abyssinian of Weiss." Crawford finished. He didn't appear shocked by this news, or startled, or anything. Part of Schu was beginning to wonder if he had been taking lessons from Nagi in "How to Hide Your Emotion 101", but the rest of him was starring open jawed at Crawford in disbelief. Crawford saw the look on Schuldich's face and waited for the man to recompose himself before he moved on with the new assignment. "We need to collect information from her. We need to know what she knows about Weiss, Kritiker, and we need to know what she told them about us, Schwarz and Esstet, on top of what they already knew. Is that understood." He asked, well for him it was asking, but Schuldich knew it was already an order. "So, I pick the little things brain, and tell you just what I found, right?" Schuldich was used to this routine. It wasn't the first time that he had been asked to do something similar to this. He was already on his feet and half way to the door before he heard Crawford's reply. "No. Not this time. It wont be that easy." He was still sitting calmly behind his desk, but his voice seemed, strained. "She has shields that are nearly impossible to break, due to her own powers. She knows how to construct them to keep EVERYTHING out, especially telepaths." "Well, I did kind of notice something like that earlier, I thought it just might be a fluke. If its not, then just how do I go about this?" the redhead asked turning from the door to again face the man of his dreams, who was at the moment giving him a reason to have nightmares. "You have to break her shields." He said simply, and Schuldich's stomach plummeted. He had known that was the answer, but he hadn't wanted to hear it. He knew what that meant. He himself had gone through it with a few of the trainers Esstet had sent in his earlier times with the organization, to make sure he wasn't holding anything back from them. It wasn't the most pleasant experience. He had only one last hope to hold on to, and he knew that as soon as he asked it, it too would vanish. "Drug her?" "No. You know that would be a futile point. Drugs on people with mental powers is hard to handle. When you yourself are placed on ones of the magnitude that is needed to break ones shields, the results are disastrous. Imagine that on someone who hardly has any control over themselves, much less there power to start with." Crawford stared intently at the man before him. Trying to judge his reaction. Schuldich had a heart, one that in spite of everything he was and did, hadn't been destroyed. This was going to hurt him, weather he had just met her, or had known her for years. But it was orders, that's all it was. That's what Crawford had to keep telling himself, yet at the same time, he wasn't the one to do the deed himself. "No. I wont. I can't. Do it yourself." Schuldich met his cold stare with one of his own. "I'm not a telepath, it will do no good for me to break down her shields. I wouldn't be able to get anything from her." Orders, they were orders. He had to follow them, even when he knew they'd do no good. Even when he knew there was no way to break her shields. Orders were orders. He had to follow them. Even when he couldn't, wouldn't, do it himself, that's why Schuldich was here. "Brad, she's just a kid.." Schuldich was now pleading. He didn't want this to happen, and he damn sure didn't want to be the one who did it. "No. She's a member of Schwarz, she's an assassin, and she's fucked her own life up, now she has to live with it." His voice almost shook, almost. "And if she doesn't know anything, or doesn't talk, or, or.." "It will be inconsequential. She will be placed through detoxification and retrained before she actually begins to accompany us on any future missions." He moved his eyes. While he didn't, wouldn't, admit to feeling anything for another male, much less Schuldich, he couldn't look him in the eyes and tell him this. It hurt to see his eyes in that much pain, and he knew his own shields wouldn't hold up much longer if he kept the gaze. He turned and opened his laptop again with the premises of going back to work.  
  
"Then, then why?" his voice was filled with concern and compassion. He didn't want to do this, especially if it was blatant that there was no real point to it at all. "She will be in mission room two at nine tomorrow morning. Meet her there. Orders are orders, don't disobey." He made it clear that that was that. No further discussion. Schuldich just shook his head and sulked out of the room. He was left with no choice. Crawford was right, orders were orders. No matter what.  
***** Schuldich walked in to the room well over an hour late. He had held the hope that if he showed up late enough she would have left already. As it was she was curled up in a corner asleep on the ground. She was still just had on Nagi's boxers and battered tank top. She looked peaceful lying on the mat by the weights, dozing lightly. Schu was ready to turn right around and leave again, and say he never saw her, but she chose that moment to wake up.  
"Gomen," she said sleepily as she sat up rubbing one eye with the back of her hand. "I can't sleep in a bed, so I didn't get much sleep last night. This was comfy."  
"You can't sleep in a bed?" he asked her as he walked farther in to the room. Maybe if he made conversation with her, she'd just tell him what he needed to know.  
"Not alone." She told him simply. He thought about laughing for a second until he realized from the look in her deep violet eyes, she wasn't kidding.  
"You really.."  
"Not alone, I don't remember why, I just cant, don't you dare ask me another fucking question this early in the shinigami damn morning." She told him firmly as she stood up and leveled him off with an icy glare that made the temperature drop a good four degrees. It would have been even more effective if she had come slightly higher then his armpit and her hair wasn't in a sleep tousled mess, clinging to her face, and if the boxers hadn't been sliding down just a little to much to show her finely curved hips. Even with all of that though, she looked fairly menacing. He had the good idea that she could handle her own in any fight, no matter the circumstances. Schu gave her a slightly hurt, yet baffled look, for her sudden outburst.  
"I know Braddy told you, answers. That's my oh so wonderful gift. You ask, or I ask, or anyone even starts to ask a question and I get the answer running through my brain at top speed. I can't block it like you can thoughts either, cause this isn't something someone else is thinking, it's coming from inside my own head." He nodded slowly at her, understanding more then she knew, well actually she probably knew given what she'd just said, but still.  
"That's why the drugs." He didn't ask it, he stated it. He had already guessed that it was something like that. She instinctively pulled her arms in tighter. She didn't have many scars, at least not from needles, her power helped her make sure of that. She knew where they wouldn't scar.  
"It gets hard. Too many questions can draw a mind in and it loses focus and then a person can't even think much less function. Sometimes the 'perfect' answer is flawed too. I always get the right answer, but if the right answer isn't known to anyone, or its two different things, one real truth, yet someone believes it fully to be something else, well, it hurts." She told him. Then frowned. Nearly her whole existence was summed up in a few sentences, she felt cheap. Then he helped make her feel even cheaper.  
"Tricking?" Maybe she was wrong. She was getting the impression quickly that she would NOT like this man after all.  
"Need money for the poison of the day. But don't get me wrong, I may be, or was, up until last night, a whore, but I never was a slut. That was one benefit, I knew who wanted what, and how to make it great. The guys who wanted a good blow and would pay well were the best. And it really didn't matter what they paid, I'd just take the whole wallet. I was above all a thief." She finished her little monologue and looked up at Schu. Looked up because he was the same height as Braddy, which was a lot taller then her. She was short in every sense of the word. He refused to make eye contact. She nearly laughed, but didn't. The drug was fading and harsh reality was setting in. She now had to listen and accept the answers that in a cloud of drugs could have been avoided. She knew the minute he had walked in through the doors what he was here to do. Orders were orders. She knew that. It wasn't him, it was really Braddy, but that she'd forgive. She would always forgive that man more then he was worth. It was just who she was.  
"Come on. Those aren't the questions you're supposed to be asking me. You're supposed to be trying to break my shields and get the info I'm not about to give you out of my head yourself." With that she moved to the center of the room, and the thicker training mats. This was going to hurt, and when she fell to the ground she wanted the most padding she could have. He realized then that no, even after trying to open up to her she wasn't going to tell him what he was here to find out. Still, he didn't want to hurt her.  
"I, I cant." He told her as he watched her move. 'Never punch a lady, isn't that what people say.'  
"Orders are orders." She told him. She was waiting for it, but she thought he'd argue a little more, or at least not move that fast, even waiting for it, it hurt more then she expected. His fist connected very solidly to her ribs. They didn't crack, but then neither did her shields.  
"I'm so so sorry." He whispered to her as she nearly crumpled over. "Just answer the damn questions, I know you know the answers." He didn't demand, he begged, he really didn't want to do this. She knew that, but it didn't change anything.  
"No." was the half-muted replay that she finally choked out. Schuldich sighed and swung again.  
"Es tut mir leid süßer."(*3) he whispered again as she fell to the mat with a hushed cry.  
***** Crawford watched from the other side of the two-way mirror. He cringed every time that Schuldich hit her. He didn't want this, but orders were orders. It was something Esstet required from all, never disobey. He had no choice here. OK, that was wrong, he did have a choice, and he chose to follow orders. He heard Schuldich's gasped sobs of distress for not being able to break her shields. He heard Sünde's pained cries. He felt like shit. Though admitting it was too far below him. She hit the ground again. Hard. Her wrist twisted in a struggle to stop herself. Two, no three, or was it four more punches? Those would all bruise. It went on for well in to an hour and a half. Finally Schu smirked at her. He was going to end this.  
"I ain't sorry for this one liebechan." He said to her. Crawford watched in shock and horror as Schu connected as hard as he could his fist with her jaw. If it didn't break it, it would be a miracle. She didn't get back up. She was knocked out for quite a while. It was over then. Schu hadn't gotten anything. Everyone knew he wouldn't. This was less about information then it was loyalties. Crawford's to Esstet, and Schuldich's to Crawford. They had both passed. The next set of tests wouldn't be as easy, but they didn't have to worry about that for a while, at least that's what Crawford hoped. He left the observing room then and met Schuldich in the mission room where he had been 'interrogating' Sünde.  
"Take care of her wounds and put her in her room." Was all he said to the German.  
"Nani! Have Nagi do it. He's better at it, and if I were her, I wouldn't want someone who just beat the shit out of me anywhere around, much less touching me." Schu protested.  
"Nagi is busy."  
"Then do it yourself!" Schu normally didn't talk back this much, he tried to keep things civil between the two of them. Friendship was the closest he would ever have to a relationship with the man, and he tried not to push the limits too much and risk losing even that. This was just too much though. He couldn't take it any longer. He didn't care what was between Crawford and the girl in the past but goddamn it he didn't want to be put in the middle of it.  
"No. If it were up to me, she'd stay just like this. I won't touch her, so either you do, or I'll call Farfarello." Crawford told him as he turned and left, already knowing Schuldich would take care of the girl. He should have done it himself, but he couldn't, not after everything else. Not yet. And just maybe, not ever.  
***** She gently stirred. Well she tried to gently stir, but it hurt like hell. Everything hurt like hell. Why, beat up by that ever so kind German. How bad, oh shinigami, a broken rib, four more cracked ones, three bruised. A twisted wrist, a black eye, and a nearly cracked jaw, any harder of a punch and it would have been broken, and multiple cuts, scrapes, and bruises, lots and lots of bruises. She didn't open her eyes at first. The light was on, and that would hurt her head, a head that was to shinigami(*4) damned clean, so clean it pounded its protest in to her. Just another hurt, and shinigami be damned again she hurt. She just let herself try and learn how to breathe first, then she would work on opening up her eyes. That idea didn't last long though. Someone was gently holding a cold cloth to her battered eye. It felt nice, but who, oh hell no.  
"Ahh." She bolted up, or tried to, just getting away from the cold compress and the person holding it would be enough. The problem was it hurt like hell to move. She ended up falling back down in a ball of pain. And she was falling back on a bed. That didn't put her in any better of a mood, in fact it made her even pissier if possible. She hated beds.  
"Hold still, I won't hurt you." A heavy nasal voice rang in her ears. She avoided the look that poured out of his heavy emerald eyes. It was full of compassion, and she didn't want that right now. No, right now she wanted to be pissed and so help her Shinigami she was going to be!  
"Yeah, a little late for that one." She mumbled. It had started out as an almost curse, but her jaw hurt to bad to barley move it. She wasn't a stranger to pain, but this on top of the undulated answers in her head, and the cramps of withdrawal on top of broken, bruised, and cracked ribs made her nearly lose composer to the point of crying. And that was something she would never do.  
"Can't say sorry about that one." He told her as he gently pressed the compress to her jaw. "That was completely intentional. I was hoping to break your jaw." She gave him a look of horrid disbelief and tried to pull back even farther. Not smart with her body in the broken and battered shape that it was, but it was the point of it all she was going for at the moment. Not the lack of logic that it showed.  
"Hey, not like that. I couldn't break you shields, and if I broke your jaw, you really couldn't talk, I'd get to quit." He tried to give her a real smile, it came out as a stupid looking smirk. But it was the thought behind it. She didn't care for that thought in the slightest. She still pulled away. She knew that it wasn't really his fault that this happened, but still she didn't hold the best feelings to him at the moment. And damn it all, she wanted off of the fucking bed. She really hated those shinigami- damned things.  
"Hold still, you'll hurt yourself worse. Here," he attempted to take her wrist. She yanked it away from him and whimpered. Half in pain, half in fear of him, and half from the knowledge of who really made this happen. But she wouldn't blame him, it was her fault really, at least in her head it was. Schuldich sighed and sat back in the chair that he had pulled over by her bed. She stayed curled up in a half ball. He just sat there and looked at her with eyes that tried to convey just how sorry he was. She didn't want to see those eyes.  
"Let me wrap it. It will help it heal." He said in a quite voice, but he didn't make a move to touch her wrist, or any part of her. She looked at him with cold eyes. Hard and set, and uncaring. Not the eyes one would expect to see on a girl like her, but then most girls weren't like her to begin with. After what seemed like hours she finally held out her wrist to him. He carefully took it and with as much care as possible wrapped it in the bandage.  
"Leave that on for at least a couple of days. And try to stay still." He said as he finished and stood up to leave. She crawled out of the bed as soon as the chair he had been in was out of her way, and took a pillow with her. She then flopped down on the floor next to the bed. She caught the baffled look in his eyes.  
"No beds." Was all she said. She closed her eyes and tried to find some silence in her head away from the questions that ran through it. For that reason, along with half a dozen others, she barley noticed when Schu pulled the blanket from her bed and draped it over her small frame. She was so small, almost breakable if you touched her wrong, but he'd proved that one wrong. Nagi's clothes just fell off of her, and that kid was practically anorexic in Schuldich's opinion. He stayed there for longer then he'd expected, knelling over her. Gently he traced the line of her bruised jaw, pulling her hair back and away from her face. Even painted in the black and blue he'd made her, she was beautiful, 'Mein Gott!!! What am I thinking?!?!' He asked himself in shock as he jumped back away from her and out of the room. 'I'm gay, I'm gay, I'm gay. I don't like chicks, I never have, I wanna fucking fuck BRAD I mean mein gott!!' His thoughts poured through his head in a very hard attempt to remind himself that he didn't like females, but it was soon evident that that wasn't the only 'hard' thing about this situation. He groaned and banged his head against the door. He needed a cold shower. A LONG cold shower. He stumbled to the bathroom more awkwardly then normal. He closed the door behind him and locked it. Soon he was standing in a blast of icy water, trying to ignore the raging erection that was prominent on his body. 'Think of unsexual things, the girl, OK that wont work that's what got me here, Brad, oh hell like that will help, Nagi, well, too young, get away from those thoughts Schu, Farfie..YIKES!' those last few thoughts were all he needed to make his once hard penis shrink and shrivel up. Farfie was not a sexual type of person, and with that knife infatuation he had, Schu was scared to even imagine what he was like in bed. It gave him nightmares. Finally he crawled out of the frigid water and toweled off. Throwing on his same cloths and pulling his hair back with the same old bandanna he always tied in it. When he opened the door he was face to face with a grouchy looking 15-year-old Japanese boy.  
"What's wrong now Nagi?" he asked patiently.  
"You were in there for over an hour Schuldich, you used all the hot water again, and I need to take a shower." He snapped at the older man in front of him.  
"Trust me Nags, you have all the hot water you want." He said as he patted the boy on the head and walked past him to the stairs leading back down to the living room. Nagi stomped in to the bathroom and flipped the water handle to hot and stuck his hand under it to prove Schu wrong and yell at him some more for his repeated use of all the hot water. 'If he didn't have such long hair..' "OUCH!!" He screamed out as the boiling water hit his hand. "Told you." Came echoing back to him from the stair way as Nagi cradled his burned hand and wondered just what Schu had been doing in a cold shower for so long, that wasn't like him.  
***** Everything seemed to float around on a see of stars and nothingness. It swirled around the room in sweet clouds. Tink could just sit in the space room of the mansion and stare off at the swirling blackness for hours. But today she wasn't being given that option. The door cracked open and the young boy, Nagi if she remembered right timidly stuck his head in. "Umm, Dasha Crawf..AHH!!" with moves so fast that he didn't even have time to use his powers, and pulling knives out of who knows where even better then anyone on 'Highlander'(*5) ever could have thought of, Nagi was pinned to the very door he had been opening. One dagger landed on the outside of either hip, just above his knees. A third, and more dangerous, was placed right between his legs, and very much to close for comfort. In that same second Tinkerbell herself flung on to the door and was crouched with one foot on either of the outer daggers, knees bending so that she was eye to eye with the terrified boy. In her hand she held her, by far, favorite dagger and was slowly pressing it farther and farther in to Nagi's throat, slowly beginning to draw a thin line of red from him. "DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING CALL ME THAT AGAIN!! THAT IS IF YOU EVER LIVE TO SEE PAST THIS!!!" she screamed at him as loud as humanly possible. He didn't even have the presence of mind to push her off. Both his hands were trapped anyway. He did the next best thing, he used his powers to remove the daggers that the madwoman on top of him was using as foot holds. She slowly slipped down his body, dagger still in hand, slicing through his shirt as she slid. It landed just at his pants line. Before she had a chance to severely injure him for life though, Crawford intervened. He appeared suddenly on the other side of the hall that the door Nagi was still pinned on swung open in to. "Tinkerbell, I need to speak with you." His voice held a clam tone, as if he didn't see, or care, what she was doing to Nagi. Those words though were enough to get her off of him. She flung out her wrist, taking with it the dagger from between Nagi's legs. It landed less then a hairs breath from Crawford's temple. "You gott verdammt fucking asshole precog, don't you EVER stop me again. And I won't miss again, just try and give me a chance. I want you dead anyway!!" Her voice echoed off of every wall in the entire house. She grabbed the two daggers off the ground and tucked them back under her clothing in such away, you had no idea where or how she put them away. After she stormed down the hall and away, Nagi finally let out the breath he had been holding. His shirt was torn open and a thin line of red traced down his white chest. Crawford simply straightened his jacket and shot Nagi a dirty look. "I warned you about calling her anything other then Tinkerbell." And he too turned and left. Nagi slid down the door and lay in a heap on the floor. His eyes were still as wide as saucers and he was finding it hard to breathe. Blinking might resume in a week. At the moment he was most thankful that Crawford hadn't noticed the fact that Nagi had pissed his pants. Black was good for something after all.  
***** "What the hell is this all about anyway Braddykins you fucking asshole?" Tink spat at the man, with a maddeningly evil grin on her face though, as he walked in to join them in the mission prep room. Them consisted of herself, Schuldich, and Farfarello. Nagi had disappeared somewhere, probably to change his clothes, she really didn't care, she didn't like that kid now. At her words Schu's eyes jumped four sizes larger. Braddykins! And he thought Braddy was bad. But the man before him seemed to have a lot less temperament and restraint with this nickname then he did with Sünde. One thing that he was leaning quickly though was that these girls were something else all right. "I have a mission for you." He said simply. He was getting a hell of a lot of hostility from Tinkerbell, and he just couldn't figure it out. He had worked with her around the same time as Sünde, and he thought they had parted on fairly normal terms. Sure he had dumped her off in the streets of Berlin, but she had come off of those streets, it didn't seem to bother her too much at the time. But he was getting the distant impression he needed to watch his step around her or die. He couldn't help but wonder why. "Does it involve me?" Schu asked lazily. He had other things to do, places to be, men to flirt with." "No, you may go." As Schu walked by, he was very tempted to grab Crawford's ass, but he had grown to like having his wrist in one piece, not three, so he decided against it. "Can I hurt god?" the white haired Irish lunatic asked. Crawford sighed. He really didn't like the idea of sending these too out together, but he needed, Esstet needed that damned Chinese ambassador dead. He had gotten to close to what had gone on around the time of Takatori's death, and they didn't need him poking his nose around now. The quickest way would be for both of them. "Answer the Fucking question Braddykins?" Tink purred at him, pulling out a knife and flashing it in the light to occupy herself, when he took too long to answer the question. Crawford's eyes roared at the sound of his name. "Do not call me that. That is not my name." "Close enough." She said pointing the knife at him in a very unfriendly manner. "No. If you want your right to be called Tinkerbell respected, please only refer to me as Crawford." His voice was steaming with anger despite the kindness the words by them selves seemed to have. "But that's two separate things Braddy." Came a voice from near the door. Tink barley looked over in that direction before continuing. "Damn straight it is Braddykin..JEPARDY!!!!" she started talking to Crawford again before she realized that it was Sünde in the doorway. Once she did connect the two though all thoughts of what she had been doing slipped out of her mind. She tore across the few feet of space and threw herself at the shorter girl, hugging her tightly. Sünde winced slightly, and drew a quick breath. Most people wouldn't have noticed, if they did, they wouldn't have thought it anything other then the force of the hug. Tinkerbell knew better. She instantly dropped back and off of her friend. Noticing then the bandaged wrist. "What happened?" her voice held a serious tone that a person would not have expected to come out of the bouncing green haired girl. Sünde just met her look, and lightly shrugged. "Welcome home party." She said simply. She wasn't much for talking. Never had been, never would be. Tinkerbell just backed up from her and shot Crawford a death ray of a look that would have made anyone else 'eep' out of fear. He simply glared back at her, and somewhere in the back of his mind wondered again just where in the hell that hostility came from. Pissy, yes, mad, yes, annoying by calling him 'Braddykins', oh god yes, but LITERALLY trying to kill him, no, she had never been that pissed at him even at the height of her full force Farfarello 'soul drain'. And now anything and everything was making her ready to kill him. This was going to be a LONG mission, fuck that, they were back to stay this was just going to be long in general. As Crawford stood off scowling and thinking about the twist of fate that had screwed him over so badly, Farfarello stood by and smiled around the blade of the knife that was in his mouth. It was nice to see those two together again. He knew that they had been friends from far back, and if the sinner and the lunatic were together again then there was no way god was happy. No, if they were near each other again, then god would be stomping mad. He liked that idea. "Sünde, what pupos.." Crawford tried to ask, after his thoughts regained focus again, but he was promptly cut off by Tinkerbell. "Sünde? That's the name you're going by now. Well, that's new, but totally sugee." Tinkerbell was happily chatting to, not with because she wasn't responding, Sünde. "I'm still only calling you Jepardy though, no sense messing with a good thing right?" "TINKERBELL! Shut up." Crawford snapped at the girl. He was rewarded with silence, and a double cold glare, one from each girl. "Sünde, what purpose do you have here?" He said, trying to ignore both of them, yet still scold them both with his tone. It didn't really work, but he was trying. Sünde shot him and even colder glare, Tink laughed. Laughed so hard in fact that she fell to the floor in tears. Sünde shot her a glare too, but it didn't have the same coldness in it that she gave to Crawford. Crawford was literally shaking with anger and hatred for the two standing in front of him. Farfarello was still off to the side, still smirking around the knife in his mouth. "Answer the question Sünde." Crawford spat at her again. Trying to hold back his rage to the best of his ability. "I'm heading out. A night on the town. I thought Tink would like to join me. What'd ya say haní?" She told Crawford, helping her friend up off the ground as she did. Crawford almost lost himself in his thoughts again. He had forgotten just how close the two of them were in the years they had spent training in Germany. Now in these few seconds it had become crystal clear to him. And he was hoping it wouldn't become a problem. "Tinkerbell has a mission." He finally told the two in front of him. "Yeah, we gitta hurt God." Farfarello chirped in from the background. Everyone ignored him, but that was normal, he didn't mind. "Ah, yeah, besides, I don't think I'm up with your crowed." Tink replied as she looked at Sünde's clothes. What few there were on her anyway. The paints were a sparkly purple that was a good two shades lighter then her hair. They were so low on her hips that her entire tight stomach and navel were shown very clearly. Her shirt was a tube top of the same color, tight beyond belief, and covering just the essentials. Her hair was tied back in several small ponytail like clumps, swinging with curls. She looked ready for the nearest street lamp, or dingy dance floor. And if Tink knew her friend like she thought she did, she knew Sünde would be hitting both. Tink herself was wearing a pair of Farfarello's bondage pants, with loops and straps and buckles enough to trip over. It had three belts around the waist to try and keep them up. The rest of her was covered by one of Crawford's best dress shirts, it was well over three sizes too big. Half the buttons weren't hooked, showing off part of her stomach. She was wearing it mostly to piss him off, and it was working well too. Sünde eyed Tinkerbell's outfit the same way Tink had eyed hers. "I guess your right. Oh well, I'll see you later then haní." And with that she turned to walk out, sashaying her hips with each step. "I don't think so." Snapped the voice of Crawford. He was fuming with anger to a level that smoke was ready to come pouring out of his ears. Sünde turned to look at him with a distinctly annoyed look. "You are NOT going out." He growled at her between clenched teeth. "Yes I am. I won't get the chance to do this once Esstet starts in, and we ALL know that. So, I'm taking tonight at least." And before he could protest anymore, which he was trying to do, she was gone. Crawford stood and fumed for a while longer, while Tink tried to hide her giggles at how much she loved the idea of Sünde telling him off. Finally it was Farfarello who snapped them both out of it. "So, can we go hurt God now or what?" he asked, waving the knife around for emphasis. Crawford glanced at him and sighed. Yes, it was VERY stupid to send these two out together. But they'd at lest get the job done quickly. After it was done, well that was a whole other story, but at least the guy would be dead. "Yes, as I was saying before.." he started as he gave them their assignment.  
***** Tink skipped down the hall towards the living room. The mission went well. Well in theory anyway. The ambassador was dead. That's what mattered. The fact that her and Farfie had had some fun after words, well that wasn't her problem. If Crawford had wanted it done nice and neat, he shouldn't have sent the two of them together. Farfie was now sleeping off whatever tranquillizers that had been pumped in to him to try and get him back under control. She was just given a dirty look and told her to clean herself up. Crawford knew that she only went as far as she did because Farfie was there. He also knew that she went as far as she did to piss him off. Why, he STILL didn't know, but if he didn't that was the bakas own fault. She wasn't going to tell him. As she passed the living room she caught the faint sent of cherry kool-aid. A smell that never failed to make Tink smile. It always made her happy. Not REALLY happy, but as happy as someone like her could get when Crawford was still alive. That smell meant that Jep was around somewhere. Tink wondered what Jep was doing back so soon though, it had barely been a couple of hours since she said she was going out. If Jepardy was still her same Jep that normally meant 'don't wait up'. But that was definitely Jep's sent, cherry kool-aid. It was an unusual smell, but for Jep, it worked. It had become a comfort thing to Tink in their early years together, and now, it still served to make her smile. Especially now. Now that they were again together, they had each other back. Tink would be damned if she let ANYONE take that away from her now. Jep was back and they were going to stay together through whatever hell Esstet tried to put them through. Tink bounded in to the living room still deeply inhaling the fresh sent of cherry kool-aid, expecting to run smack dab in to her friend, and ask her what she was doing back so soon. The problem was, Jepardy was NOT in the room. The only people in the room were that little fucking Nagi brat, who as she entered immediately began to crawl farther back in to a corner, and Schuldich. "Where's Jep? Did she just come by or something?" Tink asked. Schuldich turned off the television he had been watching as he stood and prepared to leave. "No, she went out. Which sounds like a good idea to me too." He started to head for the door that Tink still lingered near. She didn't get it. The smell was faint, to faint for most to notice it, but it was cherry kool- aid. Jep was the only one in the world that wore kool-aid scented perfumes. Then as Schuldich passed her she caught a stronger whiff of the sent. It was coming from him. Suddenly things made sense. The bandaged wrist, the pain when Tink hugged her, her own words, 'Welcome home party.', this was the one who had done that to Sünde, to her Jepardy. Even if she didn't have shields that were nearly as good as Jep, and he had been able to read her, he still wouldn't have seen it coming. She was scrawny as hell, but strong. Her fist connected immediately with his gut, sending him lurching forward and crumpling to his knees with a small 'poof' of air. With her fist still buried in his stomach she harshly whispered in to his ear. "If you ever even think of touching her again, I WILL kill you." And then she removed her hand and let him fall the rest of the way to the ground. Just before he hit, and passed out, she heard him mumble one word. "..orders." that one word made it crystal clear in Tinkerbell's head just who had been the one to truly cause that pain on her friend. Even if it had been Schuldich's hands, he had been behind it. 'Another reason for me to hate that fucking asshole bastard Bradley fucking Crawford.' she thought to herself as she stormed off. Not like she really needed another reason, but oh well, now she had one.  
***** It had been a long night. So long a night that it was actually morning when she stumbled in to the house at, well even with being Jepardy, she didn't know. //Wow, maybe I overdid it with the drugs and alcohol.// she thought to herself. She had gotten trashed before, but if she tried she could always answer even the harder questions. And something in her head told her that what time it was WASN'T a hard question. Oh well, she deserved it. This would be the last time she ever would be able to use those methods to shut up the shinigami verdammt answers in her head. She needed it. Well, at least that's what she told herself. She had some vague recollection of someone being there when she stumbled in to the house. A someone who carried her up the stairs and in to a cold shower, trying to blast away some of the cobwebs in her head. It hadn't help. The water had tickled her skin, skin that was a fire from the last trip she was still floating on. That same person then helped her out of her, then wet and ruined clothes, and in to some of someone's, Nagi's most likely, his would be the only ones to even begin to fit her. Then that same set of hands, fuck, she really wished she knew who's they were, threw her in her room, and unfortunately on her bed. She hated fucking beds, but before she could roll off it and on to the floor, she passed out. The owner of those nearly helpful hand stood in the door for a brief second. Watching the girls small form try to roll off the bed, and not make it. He silently shook his head. "Why do you do this to yourself?" he asked in a hushed whisper, one that was ate up by the silence around them. He then shut her door and left. Moving down the hall to his own room. Thoughts still filled with mixed emotions of the young girl. Tomorrow morning Esstet trainers would be there to start her 're-joining' of Schwarz. He knew their efforts wouldn't get them far. Once she was clean and sober, she was going to be at her best again. Yet that wouldn't stop them from putting her through the wringer. He tried not to think about that as he rolled over in his own bed and fell asleep. Just before he shut his eyes he cast a glance at the nightstand clock. 5:17. He wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight either. He probably shouldn't have stayed up and waited for her to come home. Oh well, that was in the past, and he couldn't take it back now. He was always more interested in what the future had to offer anyway. Now all he could do was just try and get what little sleep he could.  
***** The light blinked on bright, directly over her head. It hurt, badly. Bright lights over a beat body, and a head that was screaming from a very, very severe hangover. And she was on a bed, she hated beds, but at least she didn't have to worry about that problem for very long as a pair of firm hands yanked her up, off of it, and in to the middle of her room. It helped the whole 'bed' problem, but not the fact that her stomach was now lurching seven different ways. "Verdammt! Don't you fucking people know how to say good morning!" She spit out as she hit her knees in a feeble attempt to stop the world from spinning and hopefully not hurl the very slim contents of her stomach. Before she even managed to stabilize herself she was hoisted back up and shoved roughly forward. She went flying in to the hallway, which unfortunately for her throbbing head, was brighter then the room had been. She toppled forward and threw her hands out to stop herself from going headfirst in to the floor. The shouting pain in her wrist made her realize that that was most likely a bad idea. With in a split second she found herself lying on her back, on the very cold floor, with the pajama pants someone had given her, from Nagi's closet most likely, twisted around her legs in a very uncomfortable way, and the thin tank top riding up to show off part of her smooth stomach. Her wrist was clutched to her chest with her good hand. Her long midnight purple hair fanned out around her now too pale face. Her eyes were closed tightly and her features were scrunched up against the light, the pain, and the impending nausea. 'What a great morning this is turning out to be.' She was very clearly remembering the reasons that she never woke up till after noon. "GET UP!" A dark voice sounded above her. She didn't recognize it. 'Who would be.Mauro, who the hell was...an Esstet trainer, why wa..they wanted her back in condition, how did..complete retraining, condensed. This was not going to be fun.' "I said, GET UP!!" Mauro snapped at her again, this time accenting his sentence with a sharp kick to her side, hitting ribs that barley had begun to heal. "AHH!!" she rolled over to her other side, away from both his foot and that shinigami damned light. "FUCK YOU!" she snapped back at him, in English. 'Wow, this is a bad morning. I just swore in English. I NEVER swear in English. Not even when pissed, or high, or drunk, or in the middle of...well I just NEVER do.' "NOW!" another kick to the middle of her back. "Esel, knock it off! She's already been beat once!" a heavily accented nasal voice said from the background. Schuldich. 'His room was next to this one, the noise must have, no, DID get him up.' "What do you care? You were the one to do it to her." Mauro turned his wrath away from her for a second to turn and face the intruder. That gave Sünde the chance to struggle in to a sitting position with the wall bracing her. She kept her eyes tightly closed against the swirling that made her insides both heave and contract at the same time. The only problem with that plan was that it made it impossible for her to see the foot that knocked in to her shoulder and tossed her down to her side again. "Stand up!" was all that he could yell at her. She mildly wondered how in the hell he expected her to be able to stand up when all he did was keep knocking her down. "Knock it off!" Schuldich yelled at him again. He understood the same line of thoughts that she was on and was attempting to give her the opportunity to stand up. She tried to take the chance, she didn't feel like getting kicked anymore. It wasn't working very well though. Early morning withdrawal, bruises and breaks from a, no two now, beatings, and a damned head that kept over flowing with answers to questions she couldn't comprehend, made it nearly impossible to stand up. She leaned her head back against the wall behind to try and get things under control. The wall moved. 'How in the hell..a door.Nagi's door.his room is across the hall.the only other one on this side of the wing.Farfie's is in the cells.Braddy's is.AHH SHUT UP!!' she screamed at herself in order to stop the endless flow of answers. It didn't work any better then her attempts to stand up had. "Can you stand?" a calm, unmoved voice asked from near her ear, so that the others wouldn't hear. She turned slightly and saw Nagi crouching down next to her by the small gap he had caused when he opened the door. 'What did he care if.oh, that's what, I COULD stand, but his idea is better.' "No." she whispered to him and let her eyes slid shut again. Nagi stood and slowly sighed. "Fine." He said as he shut the door. At that same second though a pair of gentle hands helped to boost her up in to a standing position. She had to walk on her own, but at least she was semi stable being held up, and kept up. "Shut up. I'm standing." Her cold voice sounded as hard and cold as ever, despite the fact that her face was still caught between pain and nausea. The two men who had been bickering during that short time stopped. Mauro stormed off, expecting her to follow. He didn't notice the unusual way that Sünde was standing. Schuldich smirked as he took note of it. He didn't say anything about Nagi holding her up though. He knew if he did Mauro would come down harder on her, and he still felt guilty about being the one who put her in that position. Nagi continued to help support her weight as she followed Mauro down the hall. At the main juncture Crawford met them. He too instantly saw what, luckily, Mauro still missed, Nagi holding her up. Crawford quickly grabbed her arm in what looked like an attempt to hurry her up. In truth, he was taking over for Nagi. 'Why, is he being caring.no, just didn't want Mauro to find out,.why.he'd have it in for me then.maybe he did care..no..yes..part of him.what..' "AHH!" the pain shot through her head again, worse now. It was a good thing that Crawford had her arm, her knees gave out from under her. "Your not even dressed." He told her in a cold voice. Ignoring everything except the fact that she was only wearing pajamas. "No shit Sherlock." She mumbled as she tried to regain some balance and stability so that she didn't need to rely on Crawford to hold her up. "Why not?" he asked her in that same demanding cold voice, it made it more of a demand then a question. He was standing there in a perfectly pressed three-piece Armani suit of a delicate cream color, and disgusted she wasn't in something similar. "Cause I had a rough night, all right Braddy." She shot back at him as she was able to finally detach herself from his grip and stand on her own. She didn't want anything to do with him at the moment, and it was a good thing too. The moment that the word 'Braddy' fell from her mouth, he released the hold on her arm voluntarily. Part of him whishing she would fall. He shot her a look of pure hatred for daring to call him something like that in front of a direct Esstet employee. He looked sharply from Sünde to Mauro, the light that reflected off his glass when he did so didn't help her headache. "The first thing you need to do is get her clean. A junkie is of no use to Schwarz, much less Esstet." And with that he stormed off down the opposite hallway towards his office. "Humph. Come with me." Mauro snorted in Sünde's direction as he walked down a different hallway towards the mission/training rooms. She stared after Crawford for a brief second before she struggled down after Mauro. "Baka." She mumbled under her breath. No, this definitely wasn't a good morning, and she already knew, there would be no 'quick fix' this morning, or any other morning ever again. 'Why did I come back again?..Him, and her to a lesser extent, but it was him, lot of good that's doing!' "Baka." She mumbled again, this time more at herself then anyone else.  
***** She hurt. Bad. Worse then before, and it was only the beginning. She hadn't had any drugs, or even alcohol for that matter, in over two days. That normally wouldn't be so bad, except a week ago it had been hard for her to go 15 minutes between hits. On top of that the trainers were relentless. They put her through heavy-duty martial arts workouts, true in her earlier years she had been the best at it, but she hadn't done anything of that sort in over three years. The mental drills that they had her jumping through had been hard when she was in her prime, with that golden silence, her 'calming wind', to fall back on, now though they were murdering her. The only silence she had recently obtained was drug induced, and even that hadn't helped much. This, this was really pushing her limits. Crawford stayed close by, to offer her the same refugee he had Schuldich, and even her many, many years back. A calm wind in the storms of her mind. Just like everything else, he couldn't block the answers from coming, they were from within her own head and not someone else, but he gave her a silence to concentrate on, to focus with, to comprehend. But now she did her best not to accept it. She didn't want anything to do with him, or at least part of her didn't. The other part of her insisted she needed to stay at least partly sane, and sometimes retreated in to his world of calmness. But not very damn often. Of course at moments like this she didn't need his quiet to concentrate on to lessen the burden of her 'gift', the pain did that for her. Nausea, cramps, fever, and just general hellish pain. That was something to concentrate on, even if she didn't want to. It also made it impossible to sleep. She had been tossing and turning for the last 48 and a half minutes on the floor. The pile of blankets and pillows that laid next to the bed, and what she used as one, had become twisted and tangled around her. Finally she was able to come to a position that wasn't too bad. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep, but maybe she could just lie there for a few minutes.no seconds, three seconds to be exact. "AHH!!" and the light came on again. Still right overhead. The small part of her mind and body that wasn't screaming in pain told her she should pull that damned bulb out. But then again, she was too short to reach it, maybe Tink could.. "UP!" Yoko's voice screamed at her. 'Who the hell was.another trainer.. Mauro's boss.a step up.' Despite everything, she was improving, and moving ahead at fast. "Uh, Don't you people ever learn, NO MORNINGS!" before the whole of her sentence had come out, and she could turn away from this new presence, the thin blank that was half under her, and still half tangled around her was whipped out from under her. Her body twisted in protest and she ended up sprawled across the floor, her head cracking against the bottom leg of her bed. 'Great! A new form of torture, at least she isn't kickin..' "OW Scheiße, I'm up, shinigami verdammt." She tried to stand. She honestly did. But the cramps in her body chose that moment to remind her of there presence. She very soon found herself folded over in a ball of pain on the floor. She was ready for the next kick, hit, whatever Yoko was going to throw at her. The gentle hands that were helping her up came as a shock to her. 'Who, Nagi, no, to strong, there real. Gentle, that rules out Braddy, then it was, but why.' "You're interfering. Leave now." Yoko snapped at the man helping her to her feet. "Nein. She's in pain, she's on a serious withdrawal, give her a fucking day off." Schuldich responded, still helping Sünde stand. 'Why, he cared...no he still felt guilty and why was...he did care.no not.yes.but then.and no..but yes.if I..and then..he didn't know.I couldn't.but..' "SCHU! Get away!" Sünde snapped at him, pushing him away from her. His faced crossed over in to a hurt expression that just didn't look right on the normally cocky red head. Sünde didn't see it. Her eyes were still squeezed tight and she was holding her head to try and stop it from spinning out of control. "I." "I know, but it's making it worse." She told him, standing, almost, steady on her own two feet. "All right." He said gently as he turned and left he room. As he passed by the door, Crawford walked in. More and more Sünde was beginning to realize the importance of a decent lock. 'Of course with Nagi around.' "Ahh." She cried out as the new set of answers that were flying around in her head met up with the searing pain spreading through her veins. She was on her hands and knees again before she knew it. "He's right." Came the cold voice of Crawford, echoing in the small, mostly empty room. "NANI?!" Yoko turned from the crumpled form of the girl to Crawford. Framed by the light of the hall behind him, making him look even more intimidating then normal. "Crawford, you know that Esstet needs her mission capable as soon as possible." Yoko snapped at him. "Yes, but it will do no good to put her through this today. It will only hurt our future cause." He spoke in that same overly cold voice. She wondered sometime how he managed not to form ice in his mouth. It certainty could have formed in the air. "A vision?" Yoko asked, backing down a bit already. Crawford just stood there and glared at both the occupants in the room. Apparently that was his way of answering. At least Yoko took it as a 'yes' and left with a small huff and a promise of starting again tomorrow. Sünde couldn't wait. Once Yoko was gone from the room Crawford spoke again. "Get back in bed and rest. Tomorrow I expect you to be dressed before the training session if nothing else." He then spun on his heel and marched out. Shutting the door and flicking off the damned light as he left. 'Had it been a.no.then why.STOP THINKING!!!! That train of thoughts wont do anything but hurt.' she yelled at herself. With that she fell the rest of the way back down in to the mess of blankets on the floor and tried to capture some sleep, no matter how uneasy it maybe.  
***** She had had enough. Two weeks and four days and she couldn't take it much more. Getting the shit beat out of her ever morning, cursed at all through the day, and the same drills again and again. Between Mauro and Yoko, it was a surprise she was even still alive. Plus, they had not made withdrawal a very kind experience for her. She had had enough. 'and in five, four, three, two,...' The light blinked on. "AHHH!!!" "OWWW" "Fuck, what the hell!!!" "HEY! Watch it!!" "DAMN IT ALL!!" "NO!" Schuldich ran in the room at brake neck speed. Every morning he had been coming to the rescue of the girl he had beat at the start of this whole endeavor. The sounds of the poor girl who was suffering the before said beating, withdrawal, and gods knows what else at the hands of those fucking trainers. Being pulled very roughly from her room and forced in to training he honestly thought she couldn't handle, psychically or mentally. Ever morning, despite how ever late his night was, he would come in and try to rescue her. Part of him said it was just that he was the one to have started this, another part of him knew better, but that's what cold showers were for. He WASN'T straight. This morning he figured he would have the same routine. Pull the two Esstet assholes off of her. That wasn't quite what he found. The doors to both Sünde's room and Nagi's were wide open. Nagi was standing there gaping in awe with his mouth, literally, hanging open. Sünde was lounging against the side of her doorframe. She was wearing a pair of Nagi's pants that were sagging down, extremely low on her hips to show off a pair of Nagi's boxers as well. It was amazing how large the Japanese teenagers clothes were on her, when you considered how small he was to being with. The pants hung well past her feet though, he was considerably taller then she was. Her top, wasn't hers either. It was a crop top of Schu's that hung like an over sized tank top on her. Her hair was pulled back it to a fairly neat and tidy ponytail. The biggest shock though wasn't to see her in fairly good condition, it was to see the heap of battered and bloody trainers behind her. Alive, but definitely going to be in pain for a long time to come. "Nani?" she said, as if confused by their looks. "I felt better, so I thought they might like some of there own medicine." With that she took off down the hall to where she knew Crawford would be waiting for her. Schu and Nagi still stood transfixed where they were. A moment latter Tinkerbell bounded up the steps from the cells below. She had been offered a real room, but had opted to take a cell with Farfie instead. That had caused a moment of relief from everyone, except Sünde who trusted the manic for some reason. The idea of a cell that could be locked form the outside was a reassuring thought to the rest of them. Though it really didn't matter too much, after all her time on the streets, a simple lock wasn't much to stop her. As she passed Sünde's room, she paused and gave a small look to the two trainers rising from their crumpled pile on the floor. "Jep's feeling better. That's good." She chirped happily as she continued to bound down the hall with her neon green ponytail bouncing to the rhythm of her steps. //Well Nagi, I think you got your excitement. How do you like it?// Schu smirked in to the back of Nagi's thoughts. His laugh tickling like spiders in the boys mind. "Shut up." Was all the kid could respond with as he retreated back in to his room.  
***** "Okay, begin now." The slightly strained, due to a broken nose, voice of Yoko called out. Sünde sat in a chair in the middle of one of the mission rooms. She was hooked to electronics and computers, and a lot of other high tech equipment. All of the wires ran in to the joining room on the other side of the glass divider. Every wave of brain activity, every heartbeat, every everything was being watched by the two trainers, and Crawford. After her little incident a week ago, they had gone easier on her. They quite the martial arts training all together, she had more then proved to them that she was capable of that. They decided to forgo the weapon training, assuming that she knew it already. In truth they were just scared as hell to hand her a katana or gun and say 'see what you can do'. They didn't know that she had a dagger concealed on her from day one. She managed to hide it almost better then Tink. Tink was the one who had showed her how, hell she was the one who had given her the dagger. When she had given it to her she had told Sünde that if she ever needed one again, it would be easier to have her own, rather then track Tink down to steal one from, which was what she had just done at that moment in time. Now most of her training was centered around mind drills. Figure out just how much damage she had done to herself, if any, and prepare her to keep a sane head without the aid of drugs to the best ability that they could. Every now and then they would throw in a general drill. She just how good her crude abilities were. She hated this. She knew she wasn't going to get any better then she was right now, but they didn't seem to realize that yet. Crawford did, but he kept his mouth shut and his lips pressed against Esstet's ass. Today's little drill was one of those crude everyday ones. See how well she could identify her comrades, enemies, and bystanders without the use of her powers. Well, at least without using them too much. Not to use them at all was an impossibility. She knew that from trying to do it for the 18 years she had been alive. As Yoko called out for her to begin, instantly the room was filled with heavy background noises. Everything from gunshots, to music, to construction, and in between it all was snips of voices, words, or even just sounds that she was expected to identify, without asking herself who they were, just saying the name. Every time she did forcefully use her powers, it would register as a spike on one of the many machines in the adjoining room. When it came to a point that it was becoming too much for her, Crawford would call it and give her a break before they moved on to the next set. Yoko and Mauro didn't appreciate it, but they went along with it, realizing he knew better then they did. But at the same time, they were trying to push past the limits that both Crawford and Sünde had set for herself. In the grand scheme of things they wanted her broke completely down and rebuilt from scratch. But they knew that Crawford wouldn't allow for it, even if they had the time to do so. Which they didn't if she was to be mission capable anytime soon. And she still had to go through the final conference/testing level with a master trainer before that as well. The tape was blaring away and Sünde was lazily listening to it as she shouted out the names that buzzed by. Annoying them the best she could and still getting away with it by simply refusing to use the appropriate code names. "Omi, Ken, Nagi, Schuldich, Ken, Aya, Braddy, Farfarello, Yohji, Aya, Omi, Tink, Nagi, Braddy, bystander, shopkeeper, Omi, Nagi, Yohji, Ken, Braddy.." she spat out with dead on accuracy. Suddenly the tape hit a blank spot, the room was filled with complete silence, before her mind even caught up with her, Sünde answered. "Aya." All three pairs of eyes that had been looking down to fix the problem snapped up. None of them were amused. She looked up and in to the angry faces. "Nani?" she asked, never allowing herself to register any emotion except mild curiosity at why they were displeased. "Sounded like him to me." She said simply. Mildly in the back of her mind she thought that if Tink had been there she'd be laughing hysterically, and she didn't even know who Aya was. And the look on Braddy's face, that would have had her rolling on the ground giddily in tears. Tink hated Braddy. Sünde didn't know why to a full extent, she had an idea though and for her that was more then enough. She didn't need to know, Tink had her own reasons and that was good enough. She heard the mic click on near the window that separated her from them. "Stop messing around Jepardy." Snapped Crawford's voice across it. She could hear a loud beep from one of the machines in the room behind him before he cut the connection. Her mind and maybe, no definitely, her heart rate jumped in a brief flash of anger. She hated being called Jepardy. Only one person in the world had that right, and it sure as hell wasn't him. "And stop calling me Brad." He hissed as it clicked on again. She had half a mind to tell him that she hadn't been calling him Brad, but rather Braddy, but then she figured that wouldn't help her situation much. 'No, I know it wont, it will just make things..' "BZZT" another buzzer was going off in the control room. "Calm your mind down." Mauro coughed across the connection. He tried to hold the same authority he had before, but with a black eye, a sprained knee, and a broken wrist, it didn't work very well. "Easy for you to say." She muttered under her breath. She could feel Braddy's mind open up to hers. A small safe haven. She refused it. To her it was under the same category as selling your soul to the devil, and she had already done that once. "We just want to run one more round." Mauro was telling her. "While it seems that you're getting them all right." "Duh." Sünde interjected. Getting a small 'humph' from Yoko, a twitch from Braddy, and a dirty look from Mauro. "Yes, anyway, you seemed to be accessing your powers more profusely when it comes to distinguishing Balinese's voice above that of the others." Sünde kept her face a complete stone expression, not reveling anything as she looked in to the window and the glass-framed eyes of Brad Crawford as she spoke. "Yeah, well, if this were a 'taste' test, I'm sure I would be doing better. I'd never forget something that sweet." "Begin now." Yoko's voice cut in just before the test started again. Sünde happily tucked away the small piece of information that Braddy had promptly stormed out of the room spouting curses in English, German, French, Japanese, and at least one other language. She knew that would get to him. She was so happy, she could have smiled, but she didn't. That wasn't who she was.  
***** When she walked into the room everything was just as she would have liked it. Quite, mentally anyway. Braddy was in his office, Schuldich was out, literally passed out, on the couch. Another night of drinking at the local club, trying to find someone to get his mind off Crawford. Nagi was sitting in front of a blaring television set, with a laptop blaring some J-pop song. Farfarello had moved the blender in to the room and was feeding it pillows, books, and anything else that would fit in it. Tinkerbell was perched on top of the baby grand in the corner, poking at he keys with one of her daggers. Farfarello knew about how Sünde's powers worked, and respected her the best he could, in other words he never asked a single question of her. Ever. Nagi was too absorbed in the yaoi site he was on to think about anything else. Sünde laughed inside at that. Nagi, yaoi, who knew. Tinkerbell, well, even when she wanted to, Tink was the one person that her powers never worked on. Normally only family members would be immune from one anthers powers, and sometimes not even then. No one quite knew how it had happened, but those two girls had developed an immunity to one another. Tink couldn't 'soul drain' Sünde, and Sünde couldn't answer any questions of Tink. It made it easy for the two of them though. Neither one had to worry about the other affecting them. As she walked in to the room she relaxed. It was nice to just relax once in a while. And lately thanks to all that shinigami damned training she hadn't been able to. She threw herself down on the couch and stretched out. This was nice. Or it would have been nice if the fiery haired German on the couch next to her wasn't snoring. "Move it Schuldich." She spat as she used her foot to kick him down to the floor. He fell in a pile and a slight 'umpf' left his throat, but not much else. She was just starting to settle back in when she could feel Nagi's confused stare on her. She turned to the young kid sitting in the chair near her. "Nani?" she asked him. So much for her peaceful relaxing time off. "You're not Japanese." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. But a confused one at that. "I never said I was." "You look it, you sound it.." he started, staring at her, trying to find out how he missed any signs that might be there. "I was supposed to. Undercover remember, I was trained to look the part. But tell, me, how do you figure it out?" She had been trained to be Japanese and with her powers to help her it was quite convincing, and she knew she had had him fooled at first. "Schuldich." He said, or tried to. The word would always get caught on his tongue and changed around. In fact it was nearly impossible for any Japanese person to be able to pronounce his name. Then she figured it out. She had just said it, perfectly. "Ah, yeah. My German gave me away. I knew it would eventually." She said with a smile, in fact she had thought about even saying that much in German. She had restrained herself though. Barely. Tink at this point had stopped playing the piano and was laughing at the conversation her friend and that damned brat were having. "He doesn't know what you are, does he?" she asked, and just for fun she asked in her native, but seldom used, Russian. "Nein. I wonder if he even knows what Sünde means, or that it's German too." She replied to Tink, speaking to her in German for Nagi's sake alone. Though her eyes never left the more and more shocked look that was crowding in on Nag's face. To say Nagi was confused would have been an understatement. He was bewildered beyond normal conventions. "Did she just speak in Russian?" he asked. If the girls hadn't known better, they would have thought that he was on the verge of tears. "Ja." They both said in unison. "Der koft tut weh."(*6) Came a mumbled breath from the man still lying in a pile on the floor. "Of course it does, Tinks poking it." Sünde said nonchalantly as she looked down at Schuldich. Tinkerbell had moved over during their conversation with Nagi and was now sitting next to Schu, poking roughly at his head, prodding him awake. Nagi's eyes went wide again. German, Russian, Japanese, the girl was a mystery to him, and was delighting in the fact that all of this was giving him a migraine. He just continued to stare at her and Tinkerbell in shock as they 'helped' Schu wake up and get to his feet. Neither one of them were very gentle in their means of doing so. Still it all appeared good old-fashioned fun. Then of course it all had to come to an abrupt end. Crawford stormed in to the room and towards the couch, though never getting to close to any of them. "Just what the HELL do you think you're doing?" he bellowed at them, though it was very obvious his comment was directed at Sünde. She mindlessly blinked at him and pretended she had no idea what he meant. Which of course she did, without even using her powers. "Pissing off Schu and annoying Nag's." she told him calmly. Tinkerbell glared at him with furry in her eyes. Schu leaned back against the couch, stopping trying to get up. He knew better then to mess with a Crawford who was already pissed off. Nagi very quickly became devoted to his computer, pretending to ignore the impending fight that would surly emerge from this. Farfarello was still enjoying the blender, not noticing anything. "You know what I mean." Crawford snapped at the girl again. She moved out from the couch and stood facing him, glaring him down the best she could, considering while she did look threatening, she was much shorter then he was and so glaring him 'down' was actually glaring 'up' at him. "No, I don't, enlighten me." She was now just as pissed as he was. "You are treating your training like its nothing. You are disobeying." he started before she cut him off. "And why the hell not, why the fuck do I even have to go through all this shit. Tinks already running missions.." "Tinkerbell didn't go out and make herself a whore, a junkie, and a trick. Esstet is trying to make you what you once were." "Well they're the ones that made me a fucking whore in the first place now aren't they Braddy!" At that an eerie silence fell over the room. Even Farfarello stopped the blender to listen to this fight. That last comment stilled any rebuts that Crawford had planed. The meaning of it was mostly lost on the majority of the room, but it had hit a sore spot in the fearless leader. Sünde and Crawford just stared each other down, both fuming, barely able to breathe they were so angry at one another. Suddenly a dagger went flying past Crawford's head and embedded its self in to the wall behind him. It had missed purposely, yet still came close. Both Crawford and Sünde turned their heads to stare at Tink. She was still on the floor by the couch. She held a look of confused innocence. As if trying to pretend she hadn't done anything. "What, it missed." She said plainly. Sünde growled, literally, and stormed out, slamming the door to her room so loud that the whole house echoed with it. Loud music then could be heard blaring from behind it. American music. Nagi groaned. Just another part of the mystery. Crawford growled out loud and retreated to his office at the sound of her music. He too slammed his door with enough force to shake the house. Schu mumbled something in German about that not helping his head. Tinkerbell retrieved her dagger and left the room, not giving any indication of where she was heading, and no one bothered to ask. If any one could, that girl could take care of herself. The silence that droned on in the living room was then finally shattered by Farfarello. He started up the blender again.  
***** "Crawford?" Nagi asked as he looked at the man behind the desk. He's just come in from school, a necessary discomfort he felt. He had to check in with Crawford after he came in. He always did, which he felt was pointless. Schu could sense if he was in the house or not, and Crawford would be able to see if Nagi did anything but come straight home. But he did as he was told. He stopped by Crawford's office everyday as soon as he came home. The man in question at the moment had a glazed over look on his face, and his eyes weren't looking at anything, just gazing off in a daydream state. A state that was not a normal thing to be seen on him. His breath was also caught slightly in his chest. He was having a vision. At Nagi's words he blinked, causing his eyes to refocus and his head to clear. Quickly he shut the laptop and stood. "What is it Crawford?'' Nagi asked again. "Nothing, it doesn't matter. Go find Jepardy and have her come to my office. Esstet has another training session for her." "Another one? That's all she's been doing since she came in." Nagi shut up in his protest as soon as the glint off of Crawford's glasses caught him. "I'll go get her." He mumbled at the older man. Nagi realized as he turned and left that Crawford must be just as peeved about all of this as anyone else. He had a different look on his face. One that didn't cross it very often. Nagi didn't see it hardly at all, but had quickly learned to be watchful when he did catch it. Crawford had had that same look on his face the day that Schwartz had plummeted in to the depths of the ocean, and again on the day Schuldich had attempted, and nearly succeed, to commit suicide. The look meant something bad. Nagi didn't know Sünde that well yet, but he didn't like the idea of something bad happening to her. He felt though that if it was too bad, Crawford would stop it from getting too far out of hand. Just like he had before. Before Nagi even reached her door, he knocked on it. Before he had even finished the second rap, she answered. "Come in Nags." He instantly opened the door and a few seconds later when he finally reached it he walked right in. Sünde was stretched on the pile of pillows and blankets that she had gathered, and used for a bed instead of her real one. Her hands were pillowing her head. One of her short legs was bent up on to the real bed behind her bouncing to the beat of some unknown American song he couldn't understand. He gently frowned at her in confusion.  
Sünde was a mystery and a half to him. She looked, acted, and spoke the part of a perfect Japanese girl. Her name itself, which he had finally gotten Schuldich to tell him meant 'sin', was German. Also the way she could so easily speak and pronounce the German that troubled all Japanese with its harshness of dialect, that would make it seem that she was a German. Yet all the music she listened to was American, and half the books she read were in English. And to help completely confuse the young boy, she spoke better Russian then Tinkerbell did, and Tinkerbell WAS Russian. She had no background, and no feelings that could ever be displayed, much less read. It wasn't fair. It annoyed Nagi to no ends. And on top of that she called him 'Nags'. A nickname he hated, yet when she called him that, he couldn't even tell her not to. He liked hearing her call him that. And that too annoyed him. "What do you..ah man, again?" Sünde whined as she swung around and sat facing Nagi. She looked like she was almost ready to pout. "I'm sick of this." "Gomen." Nagi told her as he closed his eyes for a brief second and simultaneously her radio snapped off.  
"Danke." She mumbled as slid, literally, up off the ground and  
stretched. "At least this is the last one." "How do you.." he started before being shot an almost smirking glare. "Nags, you really are more naive then anyone gives you credit for." "Your not as out of control as you think you are." He told her, taking into a count that despite everything she had done, and the way she tried to present herself, she knew what she was doing. Not many people could take down three Esstet trainers, piss off Crawford at every given chance, AND stay alive. He allowed himself to return her smirk with one of his own. Neither one of them were actually very good at showing feelings, so the unusual 'smirks' they were giving each other would have made anyone watching this show crack up laughing. They weren't real smirks, or real smiles, hell, not even real expressions, just something on both of their faces. Then Sünde turned and stretched out the creaks that had settled in her limbs. Her shirt, or more correctly Schuldich's crop top, that had the look of a normal tank top on her, crept up across her flat stomach. Her skin had a naturally darker tone to it then most Japanese. Her pants, no, wrong again, Nagi's pants, slipped easily down a few inches on her slender hips, showing off a pair of baby blue boxers with pink flamingos dancing on them. Nagi briefly blushed at that fact, realizing that they too were his. She hadn't even realized that this little show of hers was in fact a show. Nagi realized that to her, this was just stretching. It wasn't the blatant show of skin and skill that she did in front of Crawford to get a rise out of him. Nagi wasn't sure what kind of reaction she was trying for whenever she did that, but she normally got anger. But then again Schuldich got that same reaction. No, this was just stretching. Yet damn, if she kept this up much longer she was going to get a 'rise' out of Nagi. 'Hell, I'm closer to her age then Crawford is anyway and.' 'Oh my gods what in the HELL am I thinking!' Nagi screamed at himself, trying to stop those thoughts. The only comfort he had was the fact that at least she wasn't a telepath. "You'd better get going, Crawford's waiting in his office." Nagi finally managed to say to her, and quickly turned around in a manner as if to leave. At this very moment he didn't give a fuck if Schu had used all the hot water in the shower, he wouldn't be needing it anyway. "Let him wait." Sünde replied, yet she still followed him out of the room and started down the hallway that led to Crawford's office. Nagi openly smiled, or at least the best attempt he could manage of a smile, at this. She liked pissing Crawford off yes, but she still followed the simple rules for self-preservation. Make Crawford wait, piss him off, don't show up, die. He needed Weiss alive for his plans to work, his own group, they weren't as important. Nagi watched, almost against his will, as she walked slowly to his office, swaying her hips side to side gently. Left over from her days on the street, Nagi knew it was hard to get some things out of your system from personal experience, but still, wow. 'God I need that cold shower now.' "Why head all the way to the shower when I'm right here?" Schuldich purred from behind him. His mocking seductiveness was marred only by the fact that the red-haired German was practically shaking with laughter. "I'd go to Farfarello well before you Schuldich. At least I know where he's been." Nagi shot back, trying to sound firm and insulting but blushing intently at the idea of Schu picking up his thoughts about Sünde. Schu just smirked and turned back into his room. "Remember Nagi-kun, you wanted it to be more interesting. Now you got it." He called out behind him. Nagi just groaned and headed down to find that cold shower.  
  
*1: Inside Joke *2: Honey (Japanese) *3: I'm sorry sweetheart (German) *4: Japanese God of Death. The only god that Jepardy will claim to believe in.  
(It's also an inside joke) *5: Come on, anyone who has ever seen the show has wondered how those  
people pull a three-foot sword from nowhere. *6: My head hurts. (German) 


End file.
